Qantas has released the flight path for the 747 that will land and retire at Albion Park as council confirms the upgraded runway is more than adequate to take the 192-tonne jumbo.

A Shellharbour City Council spokeswoman said public parks will provide an excellent spot to watch the Qantas 747 plane that will land and retire at Albion Park Airport as part of a permanent museum piece of the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS).

Qantas said the plane will leave from Sydney airport and fly south down the coast before turning west between Wollongong and Port Kembla and turn south at West Dapto before landing at Albion Park at 7:50am on Sunday March 8.

Rosemary Crowhurst from Shellhabour City Council said people would be able to spot the plane flying in from parks within Berkeley and West Dapto.

"Once it comes off the main runway, it will be on the smooth runway, but the taxi way isn't as good quality so we're putting some big plastic sheets under the wheels which spreads the load across a bigger area and reduces the problem," she said.

The large plastic sheets are the same as those used to prevent damage to turf and allow floor cabling to be connected at large music festivals.

It will then come to rest on a newly poured concrete slab.

"The slab is in place and is curing now - we're very confident with the heavy level of engineering, we can put twice the weight on it there and make it presentable to the public," HARS spokesman Bob De La Hunty said.

Ms Crowhurst said the Albion Park Airport runway is in good condition, having been rebuilt in recent years.

"We're keeping a close eye on the top 20mm of the surface, but in the negotiations with Qantas, they think they can land it without any problem."

Future of the plane's parts

Qantas will remove three of the four engines in the 747 because they still have three years of use left in them.

They'll be replaced by engines that have expired, but that's not likely to happen for several months.

"The guys [Qantas pilots] have been down a number of times and flown around in light aircraft to get a pigeon's eye view and they've been through a lot of training," Mr De La Hunty said.

"The geography survey says we could fly it in nine times [without harming the runway]."

He also said Qantas would remove the cockpit voice recorder in case the pilots use some blue language on approach to the small regional Illawarra airport.

The pilots have been training in the Qantas 747 simulator in Sydney to perfect the landing, and ABC Illawarra will be visiting them next week in Sydney.

Rosemary Crowhurst and Bob De la Hunty spoke to 97.3 ABC Illawarra Mornings.