Qantas and Boeing are celebrating the delivery of 250 Boeing aircraft, and 100 737s, to Qantas with the handover of the airline’s latest 737-800 in Seattle this week.
A delivery dinner was held in Seattle on Tuesday evening ahead of the handover of 737-838 VH-XZG Bungendore, which is in fact Qantas’s 251st Boeing jetliner and 101st 737, at Boeing Field on June 5. The milestone 250th Boeing and 100th 737 was in fact 737-838 VH-XZF, which was delivered on May 10. But formalities to mark the milestone centred around VH-XZG, which is due to arrive in Sydney and then Melbourne on Friday evening, as its handover coincided with a visit by Qantas Group officials and media to see the first Jetstar 787 in final assembly.
The 250 figure comprises 707s, 737s, 747s and 767s delivered to Qantas and 727s, 737s and Douglas DC-9s delivered to TAA/Australian Airlines, but does not include leased aircraft, such as the 717s operated by Cobham for QantasLink, nor Douglas DC-3s and DC-4s.
Qantas’s first Boeing was its first 707, delivered in 1959, while the 100th Boeing delivered to Qantas was a 747-400 delivered in 1992.
“Over the decades Qantas’s partnership with Boeing has been absolutely fundamental to our success as an airline,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said. “Together we’ve been responsible for some special moments in aviation history, from the invention of business class to important achievements in air navigation.”
With VH-XZG’s delivery Qantas’s 737-800 fleet stands at 65, with a further nine on order – four to be delivered during the remainder of 2013 and five in 2014.
