A water cannon salute has marked the closure of QantasLink’s turboprop base at Perth Airport.
QantasLink has withdrawn its Q400 turboprops from Perth as part of network and fleet changes announced in November 2014.
Tuesday March 24 was the Q400’s final day of operations in Perth, with VH-LQJ competing a Perth-Geraldton-Perth rotation in the morning and a Perth-Learmonth-Perth trip later that day.
Fire trucks greeted the arrival of QF2429 – VH-LQJ’s last scheduled flight to Perth – just after it touched down at 1759 local time.
On Wednesday, VH-LQJ was ferried to Adelaide and then onwards to Brisbane, where it resumed revenue service with a return trip to Roma later that evening.
All QantasLink flights in Perth will now be operated with either Boeing 717s or Network Aviation Fokker 100s. Network Aviation, primarily a charter/fly-in, fly-out carrier, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qantas.
