Australian Airways Boeing 747-300

The 747-300 was launched in 1980, and Australian Airways, already looking at converting 3 of their -200s to become -200SUDs (stretched-upper-decks), decided to order the -300 instead. They made an order for 8 aircraft, with the first one arriving in September 1983, with the inaugural passenger flight taking place on the 29th of that month from Sydney to Los Angeles via Nadi and Honolulu as flight AU11. With this route, Nadi would later be dropped as a fuel stop.

The 747-300 was launched at an unfortunate time, however. Many airlines already had all of the 747s they needed, so there was no need to replace them when they were all already around a decade or less old. Besides, the oil crisis did not help the -300 either. And then, towards the end of the decade, Boeing launched the 747-400 model, with more efficient engines, winglets, and technological upgrades.

The 747-300 would cease flying international services from March 2009, with the last flight being AU180 from Auckland to Sydney on 18th of March 2009. The last remaining 4 -300s would fly high capacity domestic services, such as between Sydney and Melbourne, and Sydney and Perth. The final passenger flight would take place on 10 March 2012, almost 30 years since they started flying. This flight was AU366 from Perth to Sydney with VH-ACD.

One of the -300s was preserved at an aviation museum in Perth wearing the 2003 livery. This aircraft is VH-ACE.

VH-ACD: 1983 Boeing 747-323 | Australian Airways | Currently: stored in Victorville April 2012-June 2015, scrapped in Victorville June 2015.