United 747s

When will United start retiring their 747s seeing as (apart from Delta, which has already started retiring them) they are the last US passenger carrier to continue flying their full fleet of 747-400s?

Not true. UPS, Centurion, Atlas Air, National, and Southern still operate 747-400s.

Pet peeve of mine: The vast majority of people on this forum think if an airline doesn’t fly passengers then it isn’t an airline. Guess what? They are all wrong. Judged by number of aircraft, UPS and FedEx are among the largest airlines in the world yet they don’t fly self-moving cargo (i.e. pax).

Kalitta…

Thanks. I knew there was another one but I couldn’t think of it.

United already retired several 747-400’s around 2008. The remaining ones will begin retirement when delivery of A350’s begins. They are currently being underutilized. The current 747 schedule this winter only requires about 14 aircraft yet they have 24 in their active fleet.

United may require only 14 747s in scheduled service. Do you happen to know if any of the other 747s are being utilized on charters, specifically the military, or as standby aircraft?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=are+united+747%27s+being+used+for+military+charters :unamused:

There are some military charters (but not many), the slack does allow a lot of international spares. Also the schedule they flew this summer required closer to 17 or 18 frames, so it’s possible that utilization will increase a bit again in the spring.