Showing posts with label United Airlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United Airlines. Show all posts

Saturday, March 26, 2016

The Twilight of the Queen of the Skies Era in the Sky of America


The Boeing 747-400, one of the largest passenger aircraft in the world became the backbone for many major airlines in the world. But it will disappear from American sky forever as two major airlines of United States of America announced if they would retire the Boeing 747-400 faster than the scheduled year.

United Airlines announced if they would retire the Boeing 747-400 faster than the schedule. They would retire the type in 2018, instead in the scheduled year in 2020. The reason is the spare parts of Boeing 747-400 now become more expensive because many airlines stop to operate Boeing 747-400. So, the spare parts become rarer and become more expensive.


N178UA, one of the Boeing 747-400 of United Airlines at San Francisco International Airport



Now, United Airlines has 22 Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The operations bases of United Airlines Boeing 747-400 are in Chicago O'Hare and in San Francisco. From February 2017, United Airlines will end Boeing 747-400 flights from and to Chicago O'Hare. Now, United Airlines operates this aircraft to Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London-Heathrow, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo-Narita. United Airlines will replace Boeing 747-400 with the Airbus A350-1000 XWB that will be delivered to United Airlines in 2018. United Airlines planned, all the Boeing 747-400 in its fleet will be retired by the end of 2018.

Delta Airlines, the major airline of the United States of America also announced if they will retire its Boeing 747-400 in 2017. Delta Airlines received its first Boeing 747-400 in 2008 from Northwest Airlines after Delta Airlines merged with Northwest Airlines. By the merger of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines, Delta Airlines received the prototype of Boeing 747-400, N661US (also called 'Delta Ship 6301').
But, N661US was retired on 9 September 2015, with the final flight from Honolulu to Atlanta, operated as Delta Airlines flight 836. Now, Delta Airlines has 9 Boeing 747-400 in active service.

N661US (Delta Ship 6301), the prototype of Boeing 747-400 owned by Delta Airlines. This photo was taken on 9 September 2015 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on its last flight from Honolulu to Atlanta

The Boeing 747-400 will be retired by the end of 2018 from American sky after nearly 30 years of its dedication to taking people to see the world. The Queen of the Skies finally will fly through the twilight of its era.