British Airways is to begin retiring its Boeing 747 jumbo jets tomorrow.
The first of the 31 Boeing 747-400s in the fleet, with the registration G-CIVD, will depart from Heathrow at 9am Tuesday morning (August 18) using flight number BA9170E.
BA announced last month that it would retire all of its Boeing 747 aircraft, nicknamed the Queen of the Skies.
The 747 has been part of British Airways’ fleet for nearly 50 years. At one point the airline operated 57 of the aircraft, with the jumbo jet’s first flight to New York in 1971.
It said the move to retire the “fuel-hungry” aircraft was “accelerated” because of the “devastating impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the airline and the aviation sector”.
BA has invested in modern long-haul aircraft including six Airbus A350s and 32 Boeing 787s, which it says are around 25% more fuel-efficient than the 747.
Al Bridger, British Airways’ director of flight operations, said: “All of us at British Airways and so many of our customers will have fond memories and special moments from our travels on the iconic jumbo jet.
“As a pilot who was lucky enough to fly the aircraft, the sheer scale of it was unforgettable, you literally looked down on other aircraft. It changed aviation forever when it arrived in the skies and I know I speak for our customers and the global aviation community when I say, despite rightly moving to more sustainable ways of flying, we will still miss the 747 dearly.”
G-CIVD served BA for 25 years. It flew its last flight between London and Lagos as part of the Covid-19 repatriation efforts, on April 18, 2020. It carried 345 passengers, 14 in First, 52 in Club, 36 in World Traveller Plus and 243 in World Traveller. It has flown 115,276.8 hours, 13,364 flights and over 50 million miles for BA.