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Retro Qantas 737 enters service

written by australianaviation.com.au | November 22, 2014
VH-XZP arriving at Melbourne at the end of its first revenue flight. (Victor Pody)
VH-XZP arriving at Melbourne at the end of its first revenue flight. (Victor Pody)

Qantas’s “retro” painted Boeing 737 has operated its first revenue flights, entering service on Saturday morning operating QF611 from Brisbane to Melbourne.

According to flight tracking website FlightAware, VH-XZP departed Brisbane at 8:16am local, touching down at Melbourne 2 hours and 9 minutes later at 11:26am local. It then operated a return service to Brisbane (QF616) before being scheduled to operate a second Brisbane-Melbourne-Brisbane round trip later on Saturday.

VH-XZP is painted in Qantas’s iconic ochre colour scheme of the 1970s and early 1980s and is named after former CEO James Strong. It arrived in Sydney at the end of its delviery flight from Boeing Field, Seattle on Wednesday morning. It was the 75th and last 737-800 Qantas has had on order.

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Comments (18)

  • Rodney Marinkovic

    says:

    So beautiful ! Return memory on my first flight on B707 in first half of 1970.
    With great QANTAS in my heart. Rodney Marinkovic, AME. (ret.)

  • John Murray

    says:

    Plse send this beautiful aircraft to ZQN as QF121/122 as soon as possible Qantas mainland should maintain this route the most experienced crews remember the 707s that flew in and out of CHC in that livery

  • Mark

    says:

    The bowtie below James Strong’s name is a nice touch…it was his trademark accessory! It would be great to an A380 in this livery.

  • John Harrison

    says:

    Living in Perth I guess it will be awhile till we see it, look forward to it when it does come west. My first B747-238B Flight in 1973 SYD-LHR was in these colours, and always liked these colours over all the others that followed. Well Done Qantas. (and I don’t say that too often these days !!)

  • Derrick

    says:

    Hopefully it will fly the Melbourne to brisbane route on Wednesday morning (QF600)…. fingers crossed

  • steveadelaide

    says:

    Nice!!! Agreed Mark, the bow tie is a very nice tribute. How about others in 50’s and 60’s livery??

  • Radar

    says:

    It would have looked even more authentic with a polished bare metal underbelly.

    I have an enduring memory of the Royal Mail emblem on the cargo doors of Qantas’ 70’s era aircraft .

  • John Simpkin

    says:

    Please put this Aircraft on a Qantas Jet Connect Service to AUCKLAND. a great reminder of yesteryear.

  • Peter Roberts

    says:

    Whilst I have the greatest respect for James Strong, from memory he had nothing to do with creation of this livery. It was in place well before his involvement with Qantas. Perhaps more appropriate would have been the C.O. Turner, the Bert Ritchie or the Keith Hamilton, CEO’s covering the design and initial use of this livery.

  • Peter B

    says:

    A great iconic livery that still looks great. Understand Peter Roberts’ comments but James was a wonderful CEO in the modern era who genuinely valued all the staff as well as ensuring the airline’s development. Hoping future QANTAS leadership can revive this quality. Will be taking my Kids to see XZP if it passes through Sydney.

  • franz chong

    says:

    Nice.Although this livery was long gone by the time I took my first ever flights with Qantas I will always remember this one for the planes my parents and brother took on them in the seventies and beginning of the eighties to Singapore.

  • Andrew Franklin

    says:

    This Livery reminds me of my childhood ..Use to travel to Port Moresby from BNE on 747’s in the 80’s on school holidays…Please do some more aircraft in this scheme…Andrew .Franklin.

  • Ben

    says:

    I agree it looks great. I’m not a huge fan of Qantas anymore but this livery looks fantastic and brings back memories. After seeing other well established airlines adopt retro liveries, (American Airlines and KLM come to mind) it actually surprises me that Qantas hasn’t done this sooner. Not too sure that this livery would work on an A380 though. The single orange cheat line over the lower deck windows I don’t think would look quite right on such a large, fully double-decked plane. However an aboriginal art livery would be better – Nalanji Dreaming on an A380 would look awesome.

  • murray egan

    says:

    Love the old livery ,well done Qantas ,such a great idea bringing it back for us to admire ,i would love to see it stay, it was something I missed , any one that knocks Qantas has no idea what there talking about , the best in the world, I,m very proud of Qantas and Qantas should be very proud of themselves. thankyou Murray Egan

  • Jim Thorn

    says:

    She looks great, James would have really appreciated this.

  • John R

    says:

    Came into Perth today. What a lovely sight!

  • PhilC

    says:

    Perhaps Bring this and earlier liveries back as the fleet goes through the paint shops .I have yet to hear a negative about this livery (Apart from the black painted Radar dome as on the 707’s )
    QF Marketing may like to introduce retro bags and souvenairs etc Such as Polo shirts Every little $ helps

  • Scott

    says:

    It looks great! Flash backs to the glamour days of air travel.

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