Last Qantas 747 draws kangaroo tail in the sky before leaving Sydney for retirement – Gulf Today

Last Qantas 747 draws kangaroo tail in the sky before leaving Sydney for retirement – Gulf Today

Last Qantas 747 draws kangaroo tail in the sky before leaving Sydney for retirement

3 hours ago

The last Qantas plane leaves Sydney airport before retiring. Agence France-Presse

Qantas Airways Ltd's last Boeing 747 jet drew a kangaroo tail in the sky off the Australian coast as it began its final flight to retirement in the Mojave Desert on Wednesday, ending the model's almost half a century of service at the carrier.

Owen Zupp, one of the six pilots on board the final flight, brought forward by several months because of the coronavirus pandemic, said he would reflect once his team had delivered the plane safely to the United States.

READ MORE

Travel ban has hit 85 per cent of European businesses based in Japan

"Once that is done I think it will be a memory that we can look back on with great pride," Zupp told Reuters. "It is significant not just for Qantas' history but aviation."

Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce, who signed the plane before it took off from Sydney Airport, said the model had helped make international travel more affordable for Australians.

"It overcame the tyranny of distance that was and continued to be an issue for Australia," he told a gathering in a hangar