Which Airlines Still Have Passenger Boeing 747s

which airlines still have passenger boeing 747s when the first boeing 747 entered service with pan-american world airways on january 22nd 1970 it revolutionized how people traveled the aircraft found immediate success with both airlines and the flying public who loved its spacious feel at the time the program cost was at one billion dollars which is approximately 7.61 billion dollars today for many the first time on a plane was with the type due to the affordability and opportunity that came with it with a partial double deck and a unique design the jet is known as the queen of the skies the first variant to ever fly was the 747-100 pan am ordered as many as 25 of the new groundbreaking quadjet the clipper young america carried 335 passengers and 20 crew members from new york's jfk to london heathrow the dutch carrier klm was the first to fly the second variant of the queen the 747-200 it took delivery of the jet in 1971 and it was even hijacked once over iraq lufthansa became the first to operate the 747-200f the freighter model in 1976 pan am was once again the first to fly another variant the 747sp a shortened version of the jet in 1980 boeing announced a larger version of the plane the boeing 747-300 with swiss air being the first to fly it which featured an upper deck twice as long as the original while the new version increased passenger capacity it failed to increase the aircraft's range or incorporate the latest technology boeing only ever made 81 units of the type which would turn out to be the least popular of all the models of the queen at the time boeing 747s were also becoming more expensive to operate because of fuel costs and the need to have three crew in the cockpit as orders began to slow for the aircraft manufacturer's largest passenger jet boeing started to look at ways that they could make the plane better so boeing announced the 747-400 at the farnborough air show in 1984 and northwest airlines became the launch customer after placing an order for 10 aircraft several months later this was followed by cathay pacific klm lufthansa singapore airlines and british airways all betting big on the 400 series the most recent variant the dash 8 had lufthansa as its first operator for the commercial version and cargo locks for the freighter version however the aircraft is becoming rare nowadays and most of these airlines have already discontinued the double-decker although still popular with cargo operators the commercial version of the boeing jet is still recovering from the pandemic in 2020 after the lack of passengers due to the quarantine most airlines decided to cut some of the wide bodies off their fleet that was the case for qantas klm and british airways sadly after 52 years flying the skies boeing is set to deliver its final 747 to atlas air in october this year since its first appearance more than 1500 aircraft have been built in all variants from the first 100 to the latest dash eights these days most of the passenger 747 still flying are the 747 400 or the 7478 air china has a long history with the jumbo jet the first of its kind the carrier operated was the 747-200m these were passed along with the civil aviation administration of china or caac which first took delivery of them in 1983. after flying for 10 to 13 years with air china these jets went to air china cargo presumably after being converted to full dedicated freighters between 2007 and 2010 the units left the company and went on to fly with other operators today air china is listed as having 10 747s in its fleet however one of these a 7478 is a vip configuration and thus not used in regular passenger service the other nine consist of three seven four seven four hundreds and six seven four seven eights according to data from chaviation.com only the boeing 7478 in a vip configuration is active however data from flightradar24.com shows that the other boeing 7478s are in occasional use making trips primarily between guangzhou and beijing air china isn't one of the best bets if you're trying to guarantee a boeing 747 flight charter carrier atlas air has a fleet of seven boeing 747-400 with a passenger configuration unfortunately for those seeking out the type this airline is unlikely to be a realistic option for hopping onto the jumbo jet atlas air is a cargo carrier and its passenger 747s are only offered on a wet lease basis only one is currently listed as active november 482 mike charlie a 21 year old former virgin atlantic jet undertaking transport flights for the u.s military the carrier also announced earlier this year the purchase of the last 747s the four aircraft will be delivered between may and october this year one has already been delivered asiana airlines has a single passenger boeing 747-400 in its fleet registered as hotel lima 7428 the aircraft is configured with 10 first-class seats 24 in business and 364 in economy the plane has been in occasional use last flying a rotation to ho chi minh city on may 11th and 12th on may 17th the aircraft operated a ferry flight across the taipei where it has remained since it's unclear if the jet will return from taipei so it seems like aseana airlines isn't a good choice for those seeking to fly on the boeing 747 korean air is one of the most iconic operators of the 747 and is known for being a rare operator of the passenger carrying version of boeing 7478 however this is far from the first variant of the u.s manufacturer's jumbo jet that the south korean flag carrier has operated as recently as 2020 the carrier still had the 400 variant in its fleet korean air began flying the 747 400 as a replacement for older variants of the legendary queen of the skies and at a fleet of 27 units it had previously flown examples of the dash 200 and 300 variants the latter of these had been quickly overshadowed by the 747 400 increased range and two-person glass cockpit the first of korean air's 27 passenger carrying examples of the dash 400 arrived at the airline in june 1989. almost all of the south korean flag carriers remaining passenger-400s then came on board during the 1990s the bulk of korean air's passenger carrying 747 400s left the airline in the 2010s interestingly multiple examples that left in the 2000s returned to the airline as converted freighters other destinations included atlas air kalita air and max air its final two 747 400s eventually left the fleet in february and march 2020 it scrapped one of these aircraft and the other joined u.s cargo carrier kalita air leaving the dash 8 variant as the only passenger option being one of only three airlines to take delivery of the passenger 7478 korean air has 10 of the models in its fleet although one is operated for the south korean government these are configured with six seats in first 48 in business and 314 in economy flightradar24.com shows that five aircraft are currently active exclusively operating flights between seoul icn and honolulu hnl lufthansa is the largest remaining boeing 747 operator surprisingly when many airlines retired their boeing 747 400s lufthansa instead opted to bid farewell to the far newer airbus a380 today the airline has 27 jumbo jets left in its fleet consisting of 8-400 and 19-8 even more surprising is that all of these aircraft are in active service in january this year one-fifth of the carrier's operations with the 747 were using the older variant-400 lufthansa remains a passenger's best bet for flying on a boeing 747 dozens of boeing 747s have been retired in the last few years lufthansa's commitment to the 7478 means that we'll likely see at least one primary carrier operating the queen of the skies for the foreseeable future over the years due to sanctions iran has become known as a bit of an aircraft museum due to its aging fleet of aircraft not really used anywhere else in the world mahan air is listed as having two boeing 747 400s and one combi boeing 747 300m the latter had been grounded since 2015 after an incident that caused damage to two engines and the fuselage the aircraft was operating a domestic flight from mehrabad international airport thr in tehran to bandar abbas international airport bnd with 19 crew members and 422 passengers on board just after takeoff engine number three failed with loose parts damaging engine number four as well as the fuselage in the process the pilots made an emergency landing back at thr a little under 40 minutes after departure bringing the aircraft and everyone on board safely back down to earth since then the 747 300 remained grounded until april 2021 but this is not the only aircraft that returned to the fleet in 2019 the carrier brought back a 747 400 that had been stored for 10 years only one of the boeing 747 400s is currently active according to flight data echo pupper mike echo echo a 32 year old aircraft first delivered to united airlines flew to istanbul recently nigeria's max air also offers the chance to fly on a passenger boeing 747 scheduled carrier has sent two of its three boeing 747-400s to penal air park in the united states for retirement though one aircraft does remain active russian carrier rossia has nine 747-400s in its fleet however due to sanctions regarding the conflict in ukraine the entire fleet is currently grounded perhaps they will return to the skies one day though while the war in ukraine is ongoing it doesn't seem as though rossia's jumbo jets will carry passengers as honorable mentions we have klm that even though being one of the first operators for some of the 747 variants is not operating it anymore the dutch carrier had a long history with the type flying the queen for 49 years another notable carrier was quantus which was once best known for its 747 400 fleet but before those the airline had operated almost every other variant carrier has also flown a 747 with five engines as the world and the aviation industry takes steps to slash their carbon emissions the four engine giants have been falling out of favor this was abundantly clear through sales of the last 747 variants just three passenger airlines took on the boeing 7478 few sales and most of the airlines scrapping the aircraft out of their fleet is a clear sign of the end of an era this decline started a few years ago between 2004 and 2021 when flights by passenger b747s had declined enormously the type still had more round trips than the b 7777300er around 3.8 million however in these 17 years the passenger 747 had just eight percent of all wide-body moments reducing from 18.5 in 2004 to only 0.69 percent in pandemic hit 2021 with nearly three-quarters of these 3.8 million flights the b-747 400 has been by far the most important variant but as seen previously most airlines have scrapped the type which means that the dash 8 the newer version is now the most used in 2019 the year before the quad jets exit speeded up quicker than expected the 747 had almost 76 000 round-trip passenger flights with 22 airlines flying it this number dropped drastically to only eight carriers in 2022 the decline of the 747 and other four engine aircraft including the a340 and a380 was inevitable even before extra motivation came from coronavirus wide-body twin-engine aircraft of many benefits beyond fewer engines and not just in terms of fuel consumption a good amount of an aircraft acquisition cost comes from power plants twin aircraft are normally lighter than quads for around the same payload with the lower weight meaning lower navigation charges landing charges fuel burn and carbon charges this brings important operating cost savings important during recessions other crises and times of high fuel prices twins normally have performance advantages too boeing has announced the end of the 747 production with only five aircraft left to deliver four are going to atlas air and one to cargo giant ups all of those aircraft are freighters boeing developed the 747-8 as competition for the successful a380 program by airbus the plane makers sought an aircraft with a capacity approaching 500 passengers and considered many designs before beginning 7478 production by 2008. the manufacturer forecasted demand of around 300 airframes for the dash 8 but the plane has struggled to get orders only 48 passenger aircraft have been delivered while 102 examples of the cargo version have despite major improvements in efficiency and range on the 747 400 there were other planes on the market turning heads long-range planes that could be operated at a lower cost including the triple 7x were much more enticing and there had been an overall decline in demand for planes with 400 plus capacity since the turn of the decade even with early interest from many airlines including british airways and emirates both eventually choosing the a380 orders were underwhelming and boeing eventually cut its production rate by 2013. the 8i passenger variant has been out of production for some time now but demand for the freighter kept the production line running boeing eventually stopped producing the 8i in 2017 as there were no remaining orders but continued with the freighter even with boeing discontinuing the program this year there's still some time until all of the passenger 747s will be completely out of service leaving some opportunities if you hope to fly in the queen of the skies what do you think about the decline of the 747 let us know in the comments simple flying publishes over 150 articles every week if you're looking for the latest aviation news and insights visit simpleflying.com

Channel: Long Haul by Simple Flying

Views: 69,542

Keywords: 2022, 747, air china, atlas air, boeing 747, commercial airlines, korean air, lufthansa, queen of the skies

Id: ga3k67NDgvs

Length: 16min 42sec (1002 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2022