European airline to take mantle of longest Boeing 747 passenger flight from Asian carrier

Korean Air is among the last airlines still flying the iconic Boeing 747, but it is scheduled to pull the jet from a particularly long US route in 2025. Route scheduling data from the aviation analytics company Cirium shows Korean Air plans to stop flying the 747 on its 7,153-mile (11,511km) route from Seoul to Atlanta – the longest 747 passenger flight by distance – in March. It will replace the 747 with the smaller Boeing 777-300ER, which has fewer seats. Korean Air’s 777 carries up to 291 passengers, depending on the configuration, compared with 368 seats on the double-decker 747. The airline may sell more upgraded seats on the 777 to make up for fewer tickets sold per flight. Most of Korean Air’s scheduled 777 flights to Atlanta are equipped with more high-value first- and business-class seats than the 747. The carrier is expected to fly the 747 to New York, Los Angeles and Singapore next year but plans to retire the fleet fully by 2031. Reuters reported that Korean Air sold five Boeing 747s in May for US$674 million as part of its phase-out plan. Airlines globally have been phasing out the famous “Queen of the Skies” for years. Boeing ended production of the jet in December 2022 after 54 years and 1,574 units built. While the 747 was already leaving fleets before 2020 – with no US carrier flying it by the end of 2017 – airlines accelerated retirements during the Covid pandemic. British Airways, Dutch carrier KLM and Qantas all ditched the plane to help weather losses and better shape their future fleets. The four-engine 747 is costly and inefficient compared with newer twin-engined wide-bodies, like Boeing’s 777 and 787 and Airbus’ A330neo and A350 that airlines now more readily rely on. One of British Airways’ 747s was converted into a stationary “party plane” in England. The 747 also proved too big for airlines’ needs, especially as point-to-point flying using smaller wide-bodied craft became more lucrative than the traditional hub-and-spoke model that warranted greater capacity. Narrow-bodied planes are starting to become more common on long-haul flights. Airbus’ family of extended-range A321neos is part of this trend because they can target smaller markets with lower demand while still earning profits – and airlines favour that flexibility. Compounding industry changes have dampened the need for jumbo-sized planes like the 747, and only four passenger airlines will still use it in 2025. Cirium data for the first 11 months of 2024 shows Air China, Korean Air, Lufthansa and Russian carrier Rossiya Airlines have about 19,000 747 flights scheduled between them in 2025, covering 35 routes. That is a 75 per cent decrease from the nearly 76,000 scheduled 747 flights on 25 global carriers in 2019. In 2024, about 19,600 of the double-decker flights were scheduled. South Korea’s Asiana Airlines and Middle Eastern carrier Saudia contributed to this year’s total but ceased 747 passenger flights in March and September, respectively. Asiana Airlines merged with Korean Air in December. Lufthansa’s more than two dozen 747 jets are expected to cover 21 routes from Frankfurt in 2025, totalling about 12,000 flights, according to Cirium. That is about 63 per cent of next year’s total scheduled 747 flights. The airline is retrofitting the plane with new seats, an investment that signals a future need for the fleet. By comparison, Air China’s roughly 4,450 scheduled flights will cover four routes from Beijing; Korean Air’s 1,900 scheduled flights will cover four routes from Seoul; and Rossiya’s roughly 750 scheduled flights will cover six routes from Moscow. A dozen 747 routes are scheduled to serve North America in 2025. The 747s are also expected to touch Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Argentina, Germany, South Korea, South Africa and Singapore. Rossiya’s 747 operations are expected to be limited to Russia. The Russian airline is a subsidiary of flag carrier Aeroflot and restarted 747 operations in 2024, probably to take advantage of the 522-seat capacity as Western sanctions limit Russia’s available planes. Cirium data shows most of Rossiya’s 2025 routes are set to fly to the country’s Far East – suggesting the massive 747s are useful not just for tourists but also for cargo needed in the remote Russian region. When Korean Air stops flying its 747 to Atlanta in March, Lufthansa’s 7,133-mile route between Frankfurt and Buenos Aires will become the longest passenger 747 flight by distance. Korean Air’s 747 flight between Seoul and New York will be the second longest at 6,906 miles, followed by Air China’s route between Beijing and New York at 6,838 miles. Although not the longest by distance, Air China’s New York service is the longest duration passenger 747 route at about 17 hours. The Lufthansa and Korean Air routes reach about 14 hours and 16 hours, respectively. Air China will run the shortest 747 flight in 2025, with a two-hour, 667-mile journey between Beijing and Shanghai. According to data from OAG, the route’s nearly 7.8 million available seats ranked it among the world’s 10 busiest domestic routes in 2024. The airline’s other domestic flights to Guangzhou and Shenzhen – and the only other 747 flights it operates besides Shanghai and New York – are about 1,200 miles, taking roughly three-and-a-half hours. Read the original article on Business Insider.

European airline to take mantle of longest Boeing 747 passenger flight from Asian carrier

Korean Air will replace the ‘Queen of the Skies’ with the smaller Boeing 777-300ER for its 7,153-mile flight from Seoul to Atlanta in 2025