100709_093639_8629 Three Of A Kind (Fri 09 Jul 10)

Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (Mascot), NSW, Australia

Although they bear the same livery, these three siblings represent different phases of Australian aviation.

In the foreground we have a 737-800 (737-838(WL) variant), VH-VYK, named Moree after a town of about 2,500 in the north of New South Wales. It was delivered in January 2006, so it was relatively new at the time this shot was taken. The 737-800 was becoming the backbone of the Qantas domestic fleet, and still is as I write this in August 2022 when 75 of them (72 operational) were in service... including this one.

Heading away from us is the larger 767-300 (767-338ER variant) VH-OGQ. At one time Qantas had 38 of these in service, and though they were 10 years older than the 737-800s (VH-QGQ was delivered in August of 1996), they had less of a "sardine can" vibe. Not that they were necessarily all that comfortable (what Qantas plane is?), but they were certainly larger and as I recall them, they did feel a bit more spacious. (That may or may not have been an illusion given Qantas' propensity to "rack 'em and stack 'em".) Although as a rule of thumb a 767-300ER could carry over 50 more passengers than a 737-800 (call it 218 vs 162, depending on configuration; this varies greatly between models, though) by the early 2010s the 767 had fallen out of favour and were all retired in the early to mid-2010s. (It's not just an age thing; the VH-VYK is now (2022) older than VH-OGQ was when this shot was taken.) In any case, VH-OGQ was withdrawn from service on 7 February 2014, a bit over 3 1/2 years after this photo was taken. After a brief spell with Wells Fargo Bank she was shipped off to China's SF Air and converted to a cargo plane where, to the best of my knowledge, she remains to this day.

The most distant plane, travelling from left to right, was from even further back in aviation history, and closer to its sunset. Before 1992, Qantas (which was then government owned) was an international carrier only. Another government-owned company (Trans Australia Airlines, more commonly known as TAA) operated domestic routes between its foundation in 1946 and 1986, when it was renamed Australian Airlines. In the years 1992 to 1994 Qantas and Australian merged to form the Qantas we know and loathe today, covering both international and domestic routes and offering the (personal opinion only) con job that is the Frequent Flyer program.

That plane is Boeing 737-400 (737-476 variant) VH-TJK, which had been delivered to Australian Airlines in February of 1991. (TAA aircraft often used registrations which started with "T", but that tradition died with TAA.) The 737-400 model was reaching its expiry date (it was almost 20 years old by that point), and it was withdrawn from use on 9 April 2013. After a bit of rework it was converted to a cargo plane and sold to the Icelandic firm Bluebird Cargo, and later (December 2017) Bluebird Nordic. As of August 2022 it's 31.6 years old and still flying.

Not for Qantas, though... only one of the three is doing that, and I've no idea how long the 737-800 fleet will remain in place there, either. With the pandemic hammering revenue for 3 years straight, I suspect that every last kilometre will be squeezed out of the existing fleet.

On the opposite side of the taxiways would be the international parking bays, with aircraft which are probably too small to see in the gallery sized image. The plane on the far left looks like a Garuda Indonesia aircraft, possibly an A330. Next over is another relic from a long gone time, a Virgin Atlantic aircraft of unknown type. Virgin Atlantic used to fly Heathrow => Hong Kong => Sydney, but that ended in May 2014.

Next is a Singapore Airlines aircraft, poooosssibly, maybe, an A380. (Actually scratch that... it's not big enough and I can only make out two engines, but not clearly. It's most likely and Airbus, though.) After that is British Airways looks-like-a-777 or would do if the cockpit windows didn't seem to have the squarish "cut" of an Airbus... but the resolution just isn't there to be sure. To its right is definitely a British Airways 747, another long gone memory. BA had 101 747s in passenger service (possibly not all at the one time). The sight of a BA747 was once, arguably, one of the most recognisable sights in aviation. By July 2020 that was down to 31, but of course that was when the pandemic's effect on air travel went to town and in July of that year BA announced their immediate retirement. The last one flew out of Heathrow on 8 October 2020, a little over 10 years after this shot was taken. After that there is another Qantas which I'd need a higher res to speculate on the identity of.

Most of them are a long time gone, in one way or another.
-----
Update June 2025: It's interesting to read what I wrote a few years ago about the 767 vs 737 in terms of space and comfort. I had forgotten that I had ever written that, but wrote something similar when I added a new 767 image earlier today. (The description on that shot also gives a more comprehensive story about why Qantas dumped the 767, incidentally.)

In terms of the main stars of this shot:
[*] VH-VYK, the 737-800 with the alias Moree, is still flying for Qantas and is now 19.5 years old.
[*] VH-OGQ was converted to a freighter in October 2016 and since then has been flying for SF Airlines in China as B-1589. It is 28.9 years old at the time of writing.
[*]VH-TJK, the 737-400 which was reported above as flying as a cargo plane for Bluebird Nordic, was sold by them to the South Africa based Africa Charter Airline in February 2024. It has been flying out of Johannesburg ever since. Well, aside from a few weeks in April 2025 when it fell off a jack during maintenance damaging the nose gear, and injuring several maintenance workers. Both workers and plane have since recovered, as far as I can tell. It is 34.4 years old. I've known DC-3 Dakotas which have retired younger than that.

In terms of the Qantas 737 fleet, it remains at 75 with an average age of 17.2 years. Two additional aircraft have been parked since my earlier description, leaving 70 operational.

Taken in: Australia / New South Wales / Mascot (show map)

Taken on: July 9, 2010

Tags:

737-800

Aircraft

Boeing

Kingsford Smith Airport

Sydney

VH-OGQ

VH-VYK

YSSY

Moree

Qantas

737-476

VH-TJK

767-338ER

Unity

767-300

737-838(WL)

Birdsville

Mascot

New South Wales

Australia « less

Sets appears in: • Aviation: Sydney Misc Shots

Camera: Canon EOS 40D, f/8.0, 1/125 sec, 53mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 40D
Lens:	EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	53mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 25.9 (Windows)
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