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Showing posts from June, 2013

Old and new: Sydney to Canberra for a day

Yesterday was a pretty momentous day in Canberra with various politicians, including a couple of the independents who hold the balance of power, announcing that they were retiring at the next election. And we got a new PM as well. I swear that, despite being in Canberra yesterday, I had nothing to do with it. No, I was busy hanging out with my colleagues doing real work. And catching Qantas Boeing 737-400s before they retire. These twenty year old aircraft are scheduled to be phased out of the fleet by early next year, to be replaced on this route by Boeing 737-800s and the no-longer produced but still younger (2000+) Boeing 717s. Isn't the latest and greatest the best? Well, I have a lot of memories of the 734 on the Sydney - Canberra route, along with a few others in Australia. My first flight out of Canberra, back in 1992, was with Ansett, likely a 737-300, but nobody flies those in Australia any more. But I did fly with Australian Airlines more than once and they used 734s.