[MarcusUK]

Most Airlines appear to be wanting two engine aircraft for the times ahead. Even LH aim to retire their brand new 747-8, in around 5 years time! Apart from the A380, which has the numbers to be cost effective and profitable…

Singapore, Thai, and Malaysian all have plans to retire them, as an article i think Alex had written recently, noted limited days for the 747.

How old are the BA 747’s?
20-25yrs old?
They must be very expensive on the fuel.
So where could you check/look up the actual age of an aircraft if you have its registration?

Most seem to be better serving as cargo, for the room they can give. Some of the comments here on BA 747 cabins, sound like cargo class!

[FormerlyDoS]

“So where could you check/look up the actual age of an aircraft if you have its registration?

For UK registered aircraft

http://www.caa.co.uk/application.aspx?catid=60&pagetype=65&appid=1

e.g. 767 G-BNWA – regd April1990, 23 years old, 747 G-BNLA June 1989, 24 years old (though I don’t know if this is in use or stored, to be honest.)

edited to add I think the 747 is not in use currently, so G-BNLE (nov 1989) is probably the oldest 747 operating in the fleet,.

[SergeantMajor]

A better site, as it’s fleet specific, is this one:

http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/British%20Airways-active-b747.htm

747 G-BNLA was stored four years ago, back in 2009.

For the 747s, you’ll note that the youngest on was born in 1999, so about 14 years old.

The oldest twelve, one of which came into service in November 1989 but mostly delivered in 1990/1991 are the ones which should have been retired last year, had the A380/787 fleet arrived as promised by their manufacturers. Most of them should be gone within 18months/2 years as the A380s come online in greater numbers.

BA bought all its 747s new, and has serviced them in house all that time, with some of the best engineers in the business. So it can sweat the assets rather more than might be normal for an aircraft with a chequered and varied history with multiple owners and servicing arrangements.

BA’s Rolls-Royce 747s are rather like a much loved car with one lady owner, regularly dealer serviced and mostly driven on motorways rather than shunted around town getting into scrapes all the time.

BA is a mature carrier, and so unlike some of the more arriviste airlines one would expect its fleet to be at the upper end of the age scale, though there’s no question that due to delays in deliveries BA is operating with some of the 747 fleet which are past their prime.

A combination of factors means that this month, August 2013, will see about the highest average BA fleet age ever.

Check back in a year or so and the number will have changed markedly with the continued delivery of A320s (part of a previous order unrelated to the latest IAG order for 220 A320neos), 787s, A380s and possibly a few more 777-300ERs (if memory serves) coupled with older A320 retirements, as well as 767s and older 777s being pensioned off.

Also, the Cityflyer fleet at LCY isn’t supported by airfleets and those are mostly 1-2 years old which would help the overall average age.

[AllOverTheGaff]

STORMIN’ – 19/08/2013 21:18 GMT
Like everything else with Budget Airways, there has been so much cost-cutting that, despite the Cabin Crews’ best efforts, BA’s supposed First Class falls far short of a number of carriers’ Business Class.

Agreed with all you said STORMIN, and particularly liked your idea of re-branding the airline as “Budget Airways”.

🙂

[FormerlyDoS]

“BA’s Rolls-Royce 747s are rather like a much loved car with one lady owner, shunted around town getting into scrapes all the time.”

Not really, they are more like high mileage reps cars that have spent a lot of time up and down motorways.

Before you say this is an insult, the reality is that one owner, low mileage, cars are a potential nightmare, prone to corrosion and such problems.

Well maintained, high mileage cars, tend to be in better nick – however past a certain number of miles (cycles/hours for aircraft0 things do go wrong more frequently and this is affecting BA’s 767/747 fleets currenlty, at a time when they need aircraft to be available to support their summer schedule.

Unlucky? Arguably, I’d say more of a known risk (new aircraft designs do suffer problems and often delays) that turned into an event due to the A380/787 issues, but they were more unlucky on the 380 IMHO.

[Bucksnet]

MarcusUK – 20/08/2013 16:59 GMT

Have a look here: –

http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/British-Airways

[LuganoPirate]

Thanks Bucksnet, useful link.

[BigDog.]

Lufthansa has ordered 59 wide body jets for long haul routes. 34 Boeing 777-9X and 25 Airbus A350-900s. The price has not been publicised though will be the largest single private sector investment in the history of German industry. Delivery will be phased over 12 years.

The aircraft will be 25% more fuel efficient than the 747-400s and A340-300s they are replacing.

Apparently the 787 was not chosen due to selection criteria including engine options, noise levels, range and number of seats as opposed to the issues the 787 has been plagued by.

Lufthansa ordered 100 Airbus short haul aircraft in March.

Reported by the FT.

[HedgeFundFlyer]

At last, some news as to when the worst of the old 747s and 767s will be scrapped….

http://www.thebasource.com/british-airways-b747-400-and-b767-300er-withdrawal-schedule/

Looks like by this time next year 8 747s and 6 767s will have been withdrawn.

Slightly puzzled as to why they are withdrawing NF fitted airframes and leaving OF fitted ariframes in service but I am sure someone out there has an explanation!

[BA744fan]

HedgeFundFlyer – withdrawl of planes will most likely be driven by proximity to next D-check which is a huge expense for the airline. Think of a D-check as being like servicing a car and services are usually determined by mileage rather than age so it it likely that BA are retiring planes due to number of cycles rather than age.

[Capetown2k]

and they are going to take cabin out and fit into old first aircraft

[FrDougal]

Not mentioned on that list is G-BNWR (767) which has already left he fleet as of last week.

So a total of 7 767s should be gone this time next year meaning half of the longhaul 767 fleet will have been replaced.

[BA744fan]

Only 7 long haul 767s are due to be replaced. The remaining 7 long haul + 7 short haul will continue to ply their trade for the foreseeable future.

[jonas123]

The capital markets day this Friday will shed some more light onto aircraft retirements

[FrDougal]

BA744

It’s a very short future. The longhaul configs are to be removed from service by spring 2016 due to new legislation being introduced which would require BA to upgrade its avionic systems which it apparently finds too costly to do so we’re looking at 2 years.

Haven’t a clue what their master plan is for replacing the European configured aircraft however.

[Author]

Posts