Qantas A321XLR Inaugural Flight
I had a remarkable experience on Thursday 25 September, when the Qantas A321 XLR I was flying aboard descended to 3,000 ft and overflew the Great Ocean Road.
This was no ordinary flight. I was aboard as a guest of Qantas alongside many other journalists and media; as this was the first passenger flight of this brand new aircraft.
The plane, VH-OGA, is named in honour of Great Ocean Road. All the A321 XLRs will wear names of iconic Australian walks, roads and rivers. And they wear the OGX series registrations once used by Qantas on their iconic (and now retired) Boeing 767-338ER fleet.
The flight - QF1321 - was flown by Captain Camille MacPherson, who flew up and down the coast to allow us all to have epic views.
We then landed in Melbourne for a brief lunch at the Qantas Lounge before returning to Sydney on the same plane, this time with Captain Anthony Jackson as pilot flying.
On the return flight we landed on the rarely-used East/West runway in Sydney, which was an added bonus for the aviation fans aboard.
Thi aircraft promises to greatly improve the Qantas offering.
I was aboard covering the flight for Airliner World Magazine.
The article is due to be in print soon and I’ll share details when it’s published.