End Of An Era
 

After 32 years of service, Air New Zealand operated their final Boeing B767 flight today, with ZK-NCI taking the final flight honours as NZ108 from Sydney to Auckland. The aircraft also operated
NZ101/NZ102 earlier in the day.

The plan was to video the last landing and takeoff, however a late change on Runway for the arrival, and showers on departure, forced me to use archive video of ZK-NCI & ZK-NCG for this short
tribute to an amazing aircraft type.

I have enjoyed 62 flights on the B767 with Qantas, Air New Zealand, LAN and American Airlines, plus 4 hours flight time at the controls in the B767 Simulator.

A incredibly versatile and solid aircraft that is sadly vanishing from our skies.

Short Video Tribute

Archive Image of ZK-NCI - 20/09/2016
http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Imag...160920-011.jpg

Thank you Grahame for the excellent tribute. The 767 has been a real workhorse for so many airlines and continues to be as evidenced by QANTAS examples continuing to fly with other airlines, such as Westjet. I think this was the last scheduled passenger 767 service into Sydney with QANTAS and Polar cargo flights continuing.

When NZ105 was vectored for 16R I presumed that this had been arranged with ATC for the media contingent and car 9 was around the touchdown point when it arrived. Maybe there wasn't a media contingent. It sounds as though you were waiting around the foreshore for a 16L arrival. It's a pity that you didn't have time to hightail it over to Airport Drive or the beach when you saw it fly over Tesat.

No Media group that I was aware of James, and yes I was over at the Threshold of 16L for the touchdown, and the Port Botany Launching Ramp for departure. It was just one of those days where nothing worked out.

There is media around when a new airline or route arrives but nothing to farewell an old lady of the skies. No helicopters or even a monitor cross by the firies. Such a contrast to last Wednesday with the arrival of not a new Vietnam Airlines aircraft, as their 787-9 has been flying to Sydney since December, 2016, but "only" for a new route to Hanoi. At least the Air NZ pilot and ATC acknowledged the last flight on the radio on departure. Hopefully, the event was celebrated by Air NZ in the terminal prior to boarding the last 767 flight. We will probably see a story in Australian Aviation in the near future.

I presume the airline would have had some sort of celebration back home, much like Qantas did when their fleet retired.

Out of curiosity, was Qantas' last B767 departure port a scene of celebration?

I remember the QANTAS 763 VH-OGL doing a fly over the harbour in December, 2014 which Australian Aviation said was, "a series of orbits." The link is below:

http://australianaviation.com.au/201...wells-the-767/

There was a bit of commotion, a water bath, balloons etc

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/12/g...-final-flight/

Hi All,

I work in acoustics, often using AS2021 to mitigate aircraft noise intrusion.

That AS list the 767 as a relatively noisy bird.

I'd love some insight as to how frequently 767's utilise SYD for passenger or freight. Judging by this thread and others, and various other bits and bobs I've found by googling, I'd suggest it's not a common sight at all. Seems to be a nostalgic fondness for them....

Sorry to tack onto this thread - I'm happy to start a separate thread if more appropriate.

Air Niugini make occasional visits to Sydney, and they are the only passenger configured B767 we get. Polar Air Cargo and Qantas Freight have very regular flights from Sydney using the B767.

These are the three aircraft Nigel just mentioned.

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Imag...160331-089.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Imag...170625-058.jpg

http://www.16right.com/Aircraft-Imag...161205-098.jpg