With United’s farewell 747 flight only a couple of weeks ago, Delta has now announced that its last 747 flights will take place in mid-December, ending nearly 50 years of service with U.S. airlines.
Delta’s farewell flight will be a round-trip from Detroit to Seoul, Korea, leaving on Dec. 15 and returning two days later. After that, the route will operate with Delta’s new flagship, an Airbus A350.
The plane, last of Delta’s fleet, will also do some farewell touring, with flights from Detroit to Seattle, Seattle to Atlanta and Atlanta to Minneapolis-St. Paul. The tour is pitched at employees and retirees, and is a benefit for the Delta Flight Museum. The public can bid on seats, but only using Delta SkyMiles.
Delta and United were both major 747 operators, using them mainly on trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes. American, which in the 70s was still mainly a domestic carrier, bought 16, but converted about half of them to freighters. The rest were traded to Pan Am in 1984 for a group of DC-10s that Pan Am got in its acquisition of National Airlines.
