Originally Posted by
Flightrider
If I remember rightly, the Britannia aircraft up to G-AXNC had the split rear galley / toilets in the tail (G-AZNZ was an ex-United aircraft) and from G-BADP onwards, which were the first of the 737-204ADVs, the aircraft had the transverse galley with a lot more stowage space and working space. Of those aircraft, I think G-AVRN kept going for by far the longest of any, but mostly confined to Britannia's LTN-Belfast International scheduled services and the trooping flights in its latter days.
There was a business-oriented BBC TV programme ("The Money Programme", I seem to recall, which did a feature on the Britannia base at Luton. At the time Romeo November was going through a complete D-check, possibly the first that Britannia had done, or done internally. It was described in the programme how extensive the work was. Later there was an article in Flight which covered this overhaul, and stated that the cost had been so extensive (it was seen as a pioneer job) that the decision was not to do them any more, but to sell the aircraft before they approached the hours, and buy replacements. However, having done the job RN was kept on for as long as practical. RN was one of the original 1969 aircraft, this was probably happening in the early 1980s, it was finally disposed at the end of the 1993 season.