The largest carrier in United States, Delta Airlines announces its plan to retire all jumbo jet Boeing 747-400 from operation.
Delta plans to end all of Boeing 747-400 service by 2017. Currently they have sixteen of them on running.
Delta Airlines Boeing 747-400 While Approaching
Ed Bastian, Delta president said that trans-pacific flights even higher on these days. Purchasing new Airbus A330 Series in 2016 will help Delta to cover retirement of jumbo jet Boeing 747s.
Boeing 747-400 is a large and accommodative in capacity but less in fuel efficiency. Airlines tend to invest bigger in new purchase rather than maintain the old aircraft.
Some analyst state that Boeing likely have to stop of its iconic jumbo jet Boeing 747 series soon. In Seattle, Boeing 747s rate production is 1.5 aircraft per month, lower than early 1990 about six aircraft per month.
The newest variant of Boeing 747 Series is Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, Lufthansa and Air China is the first two customers who used this aircraft. There are Korean Air and Transaero of Russia on list order of the same aircraft.
In opposite way, many airlines decided to replace its Boeing 747s fleet with Boeing 777 Series or Boeing 787 Series. Nowadays, extra widebody aircraft could compete double decker capacity and way much better in fuel efficiency.