Qantas Is Latest Major Global Airline to Give Up on Boeing 747
Photo Credit: Qantas will retire its 747 fleet by 2020. Pictured is an early-generation Boeing 747 SP. Qantas
Skift Take
Aviation nerds surely will be upset Qantas is retiring its Boeing 747s. The aircraft has been the world's most iconic jet for decades, but times change, and airlines now prefer smaller, more fuel efficient twin-engined jets. Sadly only a few airlines — British Airways, Lufthansa, Korean Air and Air China — seem committed to the aircraft beyond 2020.
Another major global airline is planning to retire its Boeing 747s, betting its future on a new generation of fuel efficient twin-engined jets.
This time it's Qantas, the Australian airline, which announced Wednesday it will retire its last Boeing 747-400s by 2020, almost 50 years after it began flying an early version of the iconic jet. As a replacement, Qantas said it had ordered six more Boeing 787-9s, the same airplane it has been using since March on its new Perth to London route, the first-ever nonstop link between Australia and Europe.
The aircraft retirements and replacements are the latest in a series of changes at Qantas over the last decade from Irish CEO Alan Joyce, who has turned the airline from a laggard
