Future 747-400 Operations in Australia

[Shayne G]

With the news surfacing a few days ago about United Airlines ending 747-400 ops to Australia much earlier when most of us had hoped,

I thought I'd put a special thread together for future passenger 747-400's to look forward to as the next 6-8 months will see numbers decline.

Sydney:
Air New Zealand will be significantly increasing 747-400 operations to Sydney from September for most of the year at this stage.

02SEP x2 , 04SEP, 06SEP, 11SEP, 21SEP, 27SEP, 30SEP 10OCT, 01DEC, 08DEC, 15DEC, 18DEC 23DEC 24DEC 29DEC


Korean Air will once again this year be bumping up capacity to Sydney with Boeing 747-400s, but for a much shorter period then in the past. They will be back from 16th December until 2nd March 2014.

Air Pacific at this stage will operate their remaining 747-400 (DQ-FJK) until November 2013 at this stage.

Thai Airways International so far have not changed their 747-400 ops but with the announcement last year of A380s to Australia (That was later quietly cancelled) one must think plans could be around the corner in 2014 to introduce A380s to Sydney but 747s. could still remain on the TG471/472 if that happens.

Qantas will still operate 747-400's for many more years but the RB211 powered aircraft will soon be a hard find and the old liveried aircraft could be gone easily in the next 12 months. (VH-OJA/C/E/I/L)


United Airlines 747-400's will be phased out in Sydney from late March 2014 and replaced with 772's as mentioned in another thread.


Brisbane

Qantas operating 747-400's to LAX and Singapore for foreseeable future.

Air New Zealand still will operate 747-400's occasionally in coming months.

China Airlines as mentioned here China Airlines will be operating 747-400 aircraft to Brisbane from late November until late February 2014.



Melbourne:

United Airlines: 747-400 aircraft until March 2014.



Charters:
Two potential 747 charters coming up, a classic freighter and a passenger -400 series is possible.



As we can see, this year has plenty of Boeing 747 activity coming up and the Jumbo has some life left in it in Australia.

December looks to be the climax of 747-400 operations before most dissapearing early next year leaving us with just Thai Airways and Qantas by middle of 2014 in Sydney.


Just some information/discussion points I thought I'd post as I'm sure there are many other huge fans of the classic 747 and the 747-400 out there.

[Shayne G]

Air New Zealand 747-400's return to Sydney seems to of begun earlier then planned. Yesterday NZ105/108 was operated by ZK-NBV and is operating NZ103/104 today.

Charters:
Two potential 747 charters coming up, a classic freighter

Just to clarify, the 747 classic charter I was refering to was the Kalitta Air 747-200F's. They are expected to end mid week.

[Oliver Gigacz]

Any chance those Kalitta classics will make their way down to MEL?

[Paul F]

They were regulars into MEL during 90,s.

[Jayden Laing]

I highly doubt it Oliver. They seem to be doing SYD-SIN-KBL-DEL-SYD.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N793CK

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N794CK

[Ian Gains]

At least one of these is a 747-222, so it has spent a lot of it's former life flying between ORD & NRT for United.

[Shayne G]

We are expecting a special 747F this Wednesday in Sydney, details to come later if it goes ahead.