A62-001 touches down in Canberra after a nonstop flight from Hawaii. Photos: ADF.
The first of two new VIP aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force has arrived in Canberra.
The Boeing 737 MAX-8 Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) touched down after a delivery flight from Texas via Hawaii.
It and its sister jet, which will be delivered soon, will replace the two 737-700IGW BBJs, which entered service in 2002 and are in need of a comprehensive upgrade to their interiors and communications systems.
The two aircraft will perform domestic and regional VIP missions for heads of state, senior politicians and senior Defence officials. They join three Dassault Falcon 7X business jets to be operated as Special Purpose Aircraft (SPA) by the RAAF’s 34 Squadron, which operates out of the Fairbairn Defence Establishment at Canberra Airport.
The Morrison government ordered the aircraft on a 12-year lease, but the current government decided to acquire them outright as the lease cost over their projected service lives would have exceeded the acquisition cost.
A tender for the replacement of the original BBJs was released in late 2021, and it was revealed in Senate Estimates hearings in February 2022 that the preferred replacement was the 737-8 version of the BBJ.
Defence documents tendered to Estimates revealed the 737 MAX-8 “represents better value-for-money than retention of the BBJs beyond the lease expiry”, and the newer aircraft “meet or exceed all current BBJ capabilities and are the only viable solution to meet the requirements of the medium capacity SPA capability”.
It was subsequently announced that the National Australia Bank had been awarded a $372 million contract to provide the Commonwealth with the two MAX 8s for an initial lease of 12 years, but this cost was later estimated to have blown out to more than $550 million.
Therefore, in May, it was reported that a decision had been made to acquire the aircraft outright for about $450 million from unspent Defence funding from the 2023-24 budget year.
Compared to the aircraft they will replace, the 737 MAX-8 features a longer fuselage with greater capacity and newer technology engines that are more powerful while being about 20 per cent more fuel efficient. They have been fitted with a comprehensive communications system and a new cabin interior.
A 737-700BBJ and the new 737 MAX-8 BBJ together at Canberra Airport.
The two aircraft feature an attractive white scheme with blue and red fuselage stripes and national markings on the fuselage and tail.
The aircraft were built by Boeing in 2023 as manufacturer serial numbers (MSN) 67959/8532 and 67960/8610, and they wore US registrations N786BJ and N787BJ while they underwent flight testing and configuration work.
In service, they will wear the state registration A62-001 and -002.
Original Article published by Andrew McLaughlin on PS News.
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