On 31st October 1993 the Australian government sold Australian Airlines to QANTAS,
permitting QANTAS to carry passengers within Australia for the first time. QANTAS
thus inherited the Australian Airlines fleet of Boeing 737-300, 737-400 and Airbus
A300 aircraft.
Only the 737-400s remain. As these were built for Australian Airlines they carry
the Australian Airlines designator 737-476. Had they been ordered by QANTAS they
would be designated 737-438. At the time of the takeover four aircraft were still
to be delivered from Boeing and thus came brand new to QANTAS, though still under
the 737-476 designation.
Two further 737-400s were sourced after the Australian Airlines takeover. VH-TJV
was leased from ILFC from 16/06/94 - 03/03/04, having previously served with Solomon
Airlines and currently flying for Sky Airlines of Turkey. VH-TJW came from Air Nauru
and still serves with QANTAS today. VH-TJM was withdrawn and stored in May 2011 and
was followed by VH-TJT in August 2011 and VH-TJT in November 2011 .
A total of twenty two 737-400s have served with QANTAS, seventeen of which remain
with the group. One aircraft serves with JetConnect in New Zealand.
Current operations see the aircraft operating primarily on East Coast sectors, although
they do regularly operate trans-Continental services from Adelaide - Perth. The aircraft
have a convertible configuration with a maximum 150 Economy seats in 3-3 configuration.
However the front five rows are at 35” pitch and can be converted into a 2-2 configuration
for Business Class passengers with the outer seats expanding and the middle seat
disappearing. Thus the aircraft can operate in 150Y, 4J/144Y, 8J/132Y, 12J/132Y,
16J/126Y or 20J/120Y configurations.
