Last week I wrote about United’s plan to retire its 747-400 fleet by the end of 2018. Today, UA President Scott Kirby announced plans to accelerate the retirement of the fleet by a full year.
In a letter to employees, Kirby stated–
As deeply connected as we all are to this iconic aircraft, the time has come to retire our 747 fleet from scheduled service. Last March, we announced that this would occur by the end of 2018; now we plan to operate our last 747 flight in the fourth quarter of this year.
The reason?
Exactly the reason I laid out in my previous article: operational reliability. Kirby added, “Today, there are more fuel-efficient, cost-effective and reliable widebody aircraft that provide an updated inflight experience for our customers traveling on long-haul flights.”
And of course, he’s right. United’s 747-400s never received personal TVs in economy class and the four engine maintenance nightmares may be the most beautiful thing in the sky, but increasingly unattractive to operate. With more 777-3ooERs and 787-9s coming, it simply does not make sense to sustain the life of these birds for another year.
And that is quite sad. I’ve already got two 747 longhauls booked this spring on United and hope to be part of the last flight, whenever that may be. But start preparing for it. Also from Kirby’s letter:
And of course, we’ll honor the 747 with an unforgettable retirement celebration — we’ll keep you posted with more details on her final flight in the months ahead.
There is a positive side to this: a more standardized experience on United. Screens in economy, no more embarrassing first class, and a new Polaris seat on the 777-300s. This news also suggests the new 77W fleet will be based in SFO. That’s little consolation, but nevertheless good news for us in California.
(tip of the hat to Gary)
Hopefully I will be able to get on it too. Though maybe I’ll be lucky and they make it easy to join the tour by flying it through Denver so I really don’t have to work hard to reposition
Any idea why there’s so little UA saver space on its own metal available throughout the year? I can find space on its partners…just wondering if this is par for the course, of if something else is happening, and why is no one writing about it?
Unfortunately, this is quite common. For Europe, Brussels is still best. For Asia, it has really dried up though HND and TPE are still easiest. KIX used to be easy–not anymore. South America virtually impossible, though GRU best. SYD/MEL virtually impossible. AKL only if booked in first 11 months in advance. TLV/DEL/BOM also tough.
Its a very sad day for the airline, a very sad decision, but the right one nonetheless. I’ve personally flown on the 747 in economy class before and it is embarrassing. I’m sure everyone agrees with me on this. But, this is the right decision and one that was waited until the last minute.
The cabins on these planes are embarrassing as well. Since they’re not worth updating, I imagine they’re getting less passengers on them as they mostly fly to Asia where you can get a much better experience on just about any asian airline. I flew a UA 747 out of Beijing recently. It was a boring flight with no IFE and cabins were worn out. Can’t imagine anyone wanting to pay for that 8-accross business class as well.
Flew on one of these recently (SFO-ICN). It honestly felt like I was back in the 90’s. Especially for the fact that they don’t have TVs. I didn’t even know long haul planes like that still existed!
Yes us Hug your own tablet was a workable solution, but in 2016/2017, not having IFE built in seems crazy.