Farewell to the Queen of the Skies – AIR041

Matt Graham

 

This week, Australia said farewell to a national icon: the Qantas Boeing 747. Over the past 49 years, Qantas – once an all-747 airline – has operated almost every Boeing 747 variant that has existed. The “queen of the skies” has transported millions of passengers to destinations all over the world, including Olympic athletes and stranded Australians returning home from disaster epicentres – many years ago from Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, and most recently from Wuhan.

Current world events have resulted in an early retirement for the Qantas 747 fleet. Despite the current pandemic, Qantas has still managed to put on three excellent final joy flights for fans of the Boeing 747. In this episode, Matt speaks to some of the passengers that were on board the last ever Qantas 747 passenger flight out of Canberra on 17 July 2020.

 

Episode contents:

  • 1:12 – Fortnightly news round-up
  • 14:48 – The last ever Qantas Boeing 747 passenger flight departs Canberra
  • 18:32 – Interview with Bindibuys, a passenger on the Canberra 747 joy flight
  • 29:15 – The Customer Service Manager’s emotional final speech on the last Qantas 747 passenger flight
  • 34:50 – Ask Matt: How to redeem 500,000 Qantas points for a round-the-world trip

 

Links:

 

Frequent Flyer Gazette articles referenced in the fortnightly news round-up:

Matt Graham
The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
Matt Graham
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