Qantas Farewells another B747

Today is sad day for aviation enthusiast and for the lovers of the 747 Jumbo.

QANTAS B747-438 VH-OJU (CN 25566 - 1239)

Qantas’s Boeing 747-400 fleet has been reduced to six from today as VH-OJU - named Lord Howe Island is withdrawn from service. OJU’s final commercial flight before the aircraft retires is a special one-off service from Sydney to Los Angeles, with flight number QF99. Qantas frequent flyers had the first opportunity to secure their place on QF99, with all 364 seats only available to purchase using points redemption's until the 2nd September. All remaining seats were then made available for sale to the general public. QF 99 pushed back from gate 35 at 5.07pm local and began taxing out 5.12. OJU taxied out along Alpha to the Alpha 6 holding point. At 5.21 OJU lined up on runway 34L and started rolling for the very last time in Sydney

Below is the movements for the last three weeks for OJU

The near-20-year-old Jumbo has 58 business class seats, 36 premium economy seats and 270 economy seats. It is one of seven 747-400s in the Qantas fleet due to be withdrawn by the time the airline celebrates its centenary at the end of 2020.
OJU rolled off the production line at Everett on the 3rd January 2000, it was registered on the Australian aircraft register on the 7th January 2000. OJU, the 51st Boeing 747 for Qantas, departed Everett on the 24th January 2000 and arrived in Melbourne on the 26th January (Australia Day)
OJU operated its very first revenue flight as QF 11 (Sydney - Los Angeles) on the 3rd February 2000.
Since then it has operated more than 90,000 flight hours and flown more than 70 million kilometres
With OJU retiring this only leaves six more 747's in the Qantas fleet.

MSN  LN    Type        Delivery Date   Registration        Named 
25566 1239 747-438       24/01/2000      VH-OJU         Lord Howe Island
32909 1308 747-438ER  06/12/2002      VH-OEE             Nullarbor
32910 1313 747-438ER  31/10/2002      VH-OEF             Sydney
32911 1320 747-438ER  20/12/2002      VH-OEG             Parkes
32912 1321 747-438ER  09/02/2003      VH-OEH             Hervey Bay
32913 1330 747-438ER  26/06/2003      VH-OEI              Ceduna
32914 1331 747-438ER  30/07/2003      VH-OEJ              Wunala

I was watching the flight on Flightradar 24 and listening to ATC from my home base station on 132.85, at 6.35pm Sydney time ATC said  "Qantas 99 for the last time in Australian Airspace - goodbye - contact datalink and monitor HF on 3467"


Here is QF99 landing in Los Angeles on runway 25L at 12.06pm LA time and arriving at the gate at 12.14pm