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If You Haven’t Flown The 747, Here Are The Remaining Passenger Airlines Still Operating Them

Soumis
 
After more than 50 years, Boeing announced in July that it will bring an end to the production of the iconic 747 line in 2022. If you haven't flown the passenger Boeing 747, here are the remaining passenger airlines still operating them. (www.gatechecked.com) Plus d'info...

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nathansthepilot
Nathan Cox 15
As a pilot of an airline that still flies these, I’m hearing rumors Boeing, in the end, may not stop the production of these when orders / high demand for them still there. With the A380 production stopped, what other aircraft can haul people or freight in the numbers of the 747? 777? Not quite. 787? Probably not worth bothering converting it for freight. The 747 has a nitch a 2 engine airplane just can’t fill.
user3956
user3956 7
Man I sure hope so, Queen of the Skies!
drdinos
Dale Sears 7
While I have never flown on a 747, and only flown on any aircraft twice in my life, I have built a few hundred 747's and other commercial and military aircraft as a structure mechanic for Northrop, Vought and Triumph.
dee9bee
dee9bee 14
Just a very small rant from a retired Pilot...There's a difference between "flying" the 747 and flying ON one. I see this on many forums.
gequinby
Griffith Quinby 16
with respect to George Carlin, are we going ON the plane on IN the plane?
AlanBDahl
Alan Dahl 2
Let Evel Knievel get ON the plane, me I'm getting IN the plane!
KicksOnRoute66
Roger Anderson 6
That's a good point actually.
dardav
dardav 4
My only flight was from EDDF to CYYZ on Air Canada B747-238BM back in 1994. I was in the Military at the time (CDN) and was flying home for a 2 week leave whilst stationed in Croatia. My first impression was holy cow I'm going to be on a 747. Then discovered very quickly this was a high revenue flight packed with tourists and nationals. Cramped beyond belief and like being in a sardine can. Not your romantic impression you read about in many posts. Still, not on my bucket list!!
user3956
user3956 3
Thank you for your service.
dardav
dardav 2
Thanks for your support
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 3
I haven't flown in one since 1984 when I took a Flying Tigers "Freedom Bird" back to "The Real World" from Okinawa. I even got to get a ride on a Northwest Airlines one after a Flying Tiger bird went down. They landed at Kadena from Naha, and picked up a bunch of us headed back to the States. I will surely miss them headed out from ATL to points west such as South Korea or Taiwan.
mulloes
Peter Smiley 3
The Queen of the Sky had flown me many, many times from SSY to LHR. Unfortunately always in economy. Sad to see them go from the QANTAS line-up. Never a hiccup with these great 'planes.
PKVol
My 747 flight history - One Transatlantic flight on BA from ORD to LHR in 2004, the return was on a 767. Our other TA crossing was on BA in 2018 on the 787-800 between BNA and LHR.

The cool part of the return trip in 2018 was our a/c was parked on the tarmac and we had to walk out to it, and we passed about 3 747's on the walk to our a/c. Some great photos of those birds who now rest in storage.
Jaime1949
Jaime Terrassa 3
flew on northwest airlines from Seattle Washington to the Philippines a few years ago had a heck of a flight I am sad to see them being go.
HORNETDRIVR
Mike Taylor 3
Most of my 747 experience was between SFO-HNL-SFO back in the day when I was a monthly commuter to "visit" Kaneohe MCAS for official govt business. Other trips were SFO-NRT-SFO on an SP; SFO-SEL-SFO; HKG-SFO also an SP. Fortunately I either flew Business or First Class since I had really racked up the miles on UAL. On a side note my shortest flights on a Wide-Body were SAN-LAX on a PSA L-1011 and a SMF-SFO flight on a HAL DC-10. The reason for the HAL flight was that weather at SFO the night before forced HAL's DC-10 to land at SMF but they had to get it back to SFO the next morning for a flight to HNL. The weather at SMF got worse and my commuter flight on UAL couldn't take off. UAL worked a deal with HAL to allow its passengers to hitch a ride on the movement flight since the DC-10 was equipped for the weather. When we were enroute to SFO the pilot informed us that weather again was closing in on SFO and that if they couldn't make the landing the divert was HNL since they needed the aircraft there. Big Cheers all around. As luck would have it, the weather cleared enough to land at SFO, much to most of the passenger's dismay. I continued on to IAD [UAL DC-10] where blowing snow and freezing temps prevailed.
Propwash122
Peter Fuller 2
So, the HAL DC-10 loaded enough fuel at SMF to go to HNL as the alternate, but was able to land at SFO? That seems like a lot of fuel to land with but I guess not enough to make it an overweight landing. Interesting story.

My only flights aboard the 747 were in 1990, PHX-HNL round trip on America West, which operated some ex-KLM 747s back then. Good times, good memories.
HORNETDRIVR
Mike Taylor 2
Yeah, I was wondering that myself but then again there were only about fifteen of us paying passengers plus crew onboard the SMF-SFO flight.
pilotjag
pilotjag 2
As big of an avgeek as I am, I have yet to fly on a 747. Before Covid-19, I thought about flying BA to London in their B744. Since they’ll be retiring it quicker than I expected, what I want to do now is fly Lufthansa’s B748 to Frankfurt. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that when air travel picks up again
snow
James Cox 2
I got about 160hrs in the back of United 747s flying across the Pacific Ocean. Funny enough I've never flown on a 777.
watkinssusan
none of the carriers listed in the article are american or u.s. based airlines..recently there was an article posted on this site regarding the "demise" of the 747, and united,amerian,delta have not flown them for a while..i live in a city with an international airport and the carriers who used to come in with 747's for overseas flights,no longer use them..klm,lufthansa for example..

zolacolby
Pete Ostrowski 2
My one time as a passenger on a 747 was in the late seventies. My flight from ORD to DTW was almost empty and was up, across the lake, and down. An unremarkable flight but a unique experience.
aurodoc
aurodoc 2
Lots of 747 flights on Lufthansa, United, Virgin, British and Braniff (very colorful aircraft) all to Europe. Comfortable plane although my neck would stiffen after trying to watch the overhead monitors for 10 hours. I likes flying on the upper deck in business on rare occasions with the nifty storage compartment next to the window seat.
htthree
Harry Thomas 2
It is sad to know that seeing the 747 flying overhead is now rare, at best. I remember being a young boy in the very late 60's and into the 70's in Suffolk County on Long Island seeing the newly minted 747 flying outbound from or inbound to JFK. I was so taken with the sight of this new, beautiful aircraft gracing the sky above me. In the 4 decades since then I have never lost that feeling when seeing the 747, actually seeing for the first time, very recently, Air Force One flying low and slow on a left downwind to runway 10L at KFLL. I looked up at just the right time and realized my mouth was wide open in amazement of the beautiful sight I was lucky enough to be seeing.
pilot62
Scott Campbell 2
Without the ability to actually fly one, almost impossible at this point in time.
The majority here are talking about just getting a ride in the back. With or without a Pilots license of any type.
NF2G
David Stark 2
A more obvious complaint about this article is that it lists airlines that OWN the 747, but not many of them are in actual passenger service.
Ratorres
Ralph Torres 1
About 2006 I was a passenger on an ANA 747 flight from Bangkok to Narita. As we started to accelerate on the runway and we heard a loud bang then noises like a broken washing machine. The pilots reduced power and then the announcement that a compress had failed we went back to the terminal. After 12 or so hours the engine was replaced. From 2007-2010, I traveled within Asia and noticed how many 747s were used for flights as short as 3 hours.
Always fun to be on a 747.
bordenb
Barry Borden 1
A bunch of pilots with too much time on their hands.
iflyrjs
terry gersdorf 1
Love watching Japan Air 747 flying over my house everyday at 1730 on appr too ATL I miss flying this airplane
AlanBDahl
Alan Dahl 1
Back in 2018 I flew SEA-FRA and back on Lufthansa 747-400s which was my first 747 flight in over 20 years (BA to London) and I had forgotten just how much better they are than smaller aircraft, even the 777. I've flown 747s many, many times over my lifetime including a rare 747SP flight from LA to Sydney back in the '80s right after United took over PanAm's Pacific service (right after, the United logos had been hastily painted on the outside and everything inside was still labeled Pan American. I will be very disappointed when the last commercial 747 is retired.
LDM103
Jon Morgan 1
My first flight on a commercial airliner was in 1973, on Pan Am's 747 'Clipper Arctic', SEA to LHR. She was as gorgeous as Raquel Welch.
fireftr
Dale Ballok 1
Do you know that for a fact, because there’s a big difference between “owning” and “operating”!
chund
Andreas Herzog 1
@dee9bee
Not beeing a pilot, I agree. I have flown the 747 many times and I was flying ON it several times in the Lufthansa flight simulator in FRA.
I hate to see it go...
chris13
Chris Bryant 1
I've flown in one three times. Once as a child on a PanAm (747-100 or maybe a -200) flight from JFK to BCN (I think it was 1972), and then again both times crossing the pond in 2000 on Virgin Atlantic (747-400). I really enjoyed it every time.

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