Qantas brings forward final Boeing 767 flight, waives change fees

not me, happy to see the back end of them. waste of time and money upgrading their seats. should have been retired ages ago.

More 737's, with some A330's for good meassure.

This will be interesting to see.Looking at some old TAA introducing the Airbus ads from the eighties telling us the big difference between airlines and planes got me thinking.We are almost with the exception of the E190's back to the days of both carriers having a domestic identical fleet.

Yes, doubly so, with Qantas/Virgin dominated by the B737 and Jetstar/Tiger dominted by the A320. Odd isn't it  that both 'groups' ordered Boeing for the premium airline and Airbus for the cut price airline? Does that say something about the aircraft themselves?

No, it's only a legacy thing. Essentially, QF inherited a large domestic fleet of 737 Classics, and initially VA operated Classics too. JQ and TT were started up anew, so they bought A320s for whatever reason was in vogue at the time, and now stick with them while the full-service carriers stick with their 737 lineage.

It's a lot more complex than this, of course, but the key point is that it has nothing to do with the 737 being more 'premium' than the A320.

Should also point out that in early September 2001 rumors said that Qantas had actually placed an order or letter of intent for A320 aircraft to replace 737 classics for domestic operations but hadn't annouced it.

But of course two things happened in September 2001, one was the collapse of Ansett that required Qantas to bring forward airraft orders urgently and of course 9/11 and the down turn in US air travel that made large numbers of (American Airlines) 738's available for imediate purchase.

The end result was Qantas ended up with 738's rather quickly to fill their capacity gap and subsiquent orders just made sense. Again the rumor mill had it that the A320's that are now with Jetstar are the ones that Qantas had ordered back in 2001.

Now you never know with Qantas group holding so many A320 NEO orders we may still yet see A320's in Qantas colours.

There are/were 31 767's including the seven ex BA aircraft (VH-ZXA-G) and the Freighter aircraft (VH-EFR).

There will be 30 A330's once the final four are handed back from JQ (though two aircraft are to be retuned to their lessors in 2015/16) 

Even though there will be the same amount of A330's replacing 767's, I think most aircraft will serve the SYD-MEL-BNE-PER routes rather than the SYD-MEL-BNE triangle! Also i believe only certain gates at SYD/MEL/BNE can accept the A330!

So it looks like more 737-800 flying for those who live on the east coast :(

Just read Steve Creedy's piece in The Australian today who said the last flight is on November 27 and that (must be wrong) 'the 767's are to be replaced by Airbus A320-200's to move across to Qantas'.   Steve is usually on the money - but this time he appears to have slipped up...

Unless he's heard something that nobody else has then thats definitely wrong. As an agent I have access to Amadeus which is the same system QF uses. In Dec they still show B767s. In Jan its nothing but a mix of 737s and A330s. No way an airline would operate a mix of A320's and 737's. Double the training. Double the spares inventory. Double many costs. Oh, hang on a mo'. This is Qantas managemtn we're talking about. Hmmmm.

Obviously a typo, should be A330-200's. Which is has been happening for a while. Clearly.

I agree, there is a lot of fondness for these aircraft but have always thought they were really nasty to fly on. I expect a lot of red arrows for sharing my opinion but I will not mourn their passing.

we can stand together then :)

Looks like that'll be your last Qantas 767 flight! The list above shows the last B767 flights by route – there are a fair few between Melbourne and Sydney that day.

Anyone know where they are going? Would any other airline buy them and make use of the new seating?

What new seating? The Qantas refurbs just had new seat covers and some wood like trim added in J.

They are going to Canadian airline Westjet I think, so in that sense the refurb was not a waste.

Think you will find they are getting 4 of them. Besides the refurb was hardly a waste, it was basically seat coverings to extend the product for a little while longer. No doubt the cost has been recouped, even with the fleet going 9 months earlier than planned.

Give me a 767 over a 737 anyday - great the widebody aircraft and extra space.... Looks like they won't be directly replacing each one of them with the A330.  Pity.

I loved the wide body space of the 767's.Chances are if you travelling on your own and the plane wasn't full you got a whole row to yourself.

As previously annouced by Qantas they will go to the early 738's.

In fact this article amuses me that it mentions the cost of the refurb, when most of it was the IFE system, which is basically a bolt in module and the IPads that can now be moved to the 738's. I suspect Qantas knew they were going to move them elsewhere after the 767's were retired when they first purchased them.

Actually the earlier 738's (VH-VXA to VZE) when refurbished will have a BYOD IFE system just like VA's BYOD IFE... 

https://www.executivetraveller.com/qantas-boeing-737s-to-get-extra-seats-wireless-q-streaming

Names stick. Take a look at the retro livery ( https://www.executivetraveller.com/qantas-to-unveil-retro-livery-on-boeing-737 ). It once was red.

OK?!?!

Bugger, QF have changed our flight to a 738, I was hoping for one last go on the 767...