And it Gets Better at Gladstone Airport - Three Qantas B738-800 FIFO Charters and More on Terrific Tuesday!

For local plane spotters Christmas, has well and truly delivered with all the Fly-in Fly-out (FIFO) charters currently calling into the industrial city. And on Tuesday 23 December, spotters were given a triple treat as two more Qantas Airways Boeing B737-800 aircraft called in three times into Gladstone Airport on FIFO charter flights.

File photo taken by Col  ©

VH-VZZ called in into Gladstone twice - early in the morning and then around lunch time - both times ferrying from Brisbane and then departing back to the capital with a load of passengers and freight.  It operated as QFA6100/1369/6102/1371.

Sister-ship VH-XZK - one of the Airlines' newer B737-800s - also called in during the morning, ferrying in from Sydney and later departing back to Sydney as QF6104/QF1373.

So far, eight B737-800 flights have operated into Gladstone Airport over the last week or so to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne! What a great sight!

Meanwhile, a couple of other FIFO charters were noted at Gladstone airport on Tuesday 23 December operated by QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 and Cobham Aviation-operated B717-200 aircraft again operating these flight.

File photo taken by Col  ©

Perhaps the most notable of these flights touched down early from Sydney with B717-200 VH-YQT calling in as QJE6200.  Notably, this particular B717 is one of five in a 2-class configuration with 125 seats, along with Q-Streaming - Qantas' wireless entertainment system.  VH-YQT then departed back to Sydney as QJE1961.

Also QantasLink Dash-8-Q400 Next Gen VH-LQM operated a FIFO flight from and back to Brisbane, while later in the day, Dash-8-Q400 VH-QOT operated the 'regular' FIFO charter from Gladstone to Sydney and back.

Finally, with all of today's regular commercial movements counted with these additional FIFO movements, it appears that Gladstone played host to some 23 commercially-operated flights on Tuesday 23 December.  Not bad for a little regional airport!