ANALYSIS
BY DAVID CHURCHILL
THE JUMBO JET SET
24 BBT MAY/JUNE 2014
THE ICONIC BOEING 747 REVOLUTIONISED GLOBAL TRAVEL OVER THE PAST HALF CENTURY, BUT IS ITS TIME COMING TO AN END?
REGULAR TRAVELLERS ON the All Nippon Airways flight from Okinawa’s Naha airport to Tokyo’s Haneda at the begin- ning of April might have been puzzled to board a Boeing 777 rather than their usual 747 ‘Jumbo’, which had been used on the route for many years. But this was no April Fools’ Day joke, because after nearly four decades of ANA being one of the most loyal supporters of Boe- ing’s flagship aircraft, on March 31, an ANA 747 commercial passenger flight had flown into Tokyo from Okinawa for the last time. ANA’s decision to stop flying the giant
aircraft was not taken lightly, especially as it came almost 45 years to the day since the Jumbo first flew from Boeing’s Seattle base. Yet ANA was not alone in signalling that the 747 era was seemingly coming to an end. Singapore Airlines and JAL, for example,
have already stopped flying passenger Jumbos, while others are scaling back their fleets. The number of 747s in service (both passenger and cargo) has fallen by about a third since the turn of the century to some 685 at the end of last year. IAG-owned British Airways, which is now
the world’s biggest single operator of the 747-400 passenger aircraft with 50 in its fleet is reportedly planning to ‘retire’ about 25 of these by the end of the decade to make way for new aircraft. But it has baulked at buying the next generation Jumbo – the even bigger Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental – despite of it having had an extensive technology upgrade to make it competitive with newer rivals. Only Lufthansa among the major air- lines has so far taken delivery of the 747-8
The world’s first Boeing 747
is rolled out for public view at Everett, Washington state, US, in 1968
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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