British Airways, which up to this week was the largest operator of Boeing 747 passenger planes, suddenly has none, following most other airlines in retiring the high-capacity but not-cheap-to-fly passenger favorite.
British Airways and its predecessors had been flying the huge four-engine jet since 1971, and had planned to retire its last 31 in 2024, but the prospect of a slow recovery to pre-pandemic business levels pushed the airline to dropping them immediately.
Over the years, BA owned 94 of the planes, second only to Japan Airlines, which had 103 at the peak. BA’s planes included nearly all passenger models, starting with the -100, -200 and the -400, the model it has just retired.
No word on what will happen to BA’s planes, but the model is still viable and popular with large air cargo companies, and they could find a market there as conversions. Boeing is still building 747s, but all the orders left to complete before the line shuts down in a year or two are freight models, mostly for UPS and FedEx.
Image by British Air: 747 in retro livery at BA’s 100th birthday celebration, 2019.
