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United performs final B747-400 revenue flight
November 3rd 2017
United Airlines performed its final B747-400 revenue flight on Sunday. Read More » The carrier’s last B747 flight departed Seoul Incheon International Airport for San Francisco at 5pm local time.
United’s B747s have allowed the U.S. heavyweight to open countless routes to the Asia-Pacific in the past four decades, including flights to Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei and Sydney.
The B747 performed its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American World Airways on January 22, 1970. United received its first “Queen of the Skies” on June 26, 1970, back then under the Continental Airlines brand.
The airline’s first B747 route was from San Francisco to Honolulu in 1980. The carrier will perform its last B747 service on the same route on November 7 in a flight reserved mainly for nostalgic staff.
United has replaced the B747 with the B787-9 on the daily Incheon-San Francisco service. The -9 flies to Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore and the B777-300ERs operate to Hong Kong and Taipei.
The B747 is quickly becoming a rarity around the world. In the Asia-Pacific, Taiwan’s China Airlines (CAL) and Thai Airways International (THAI) still fly -400s. Garuda Indonesia retired its last B747 in October and EVA Air made the same decision earlier this year. Cathay Pacific Airways decommissioned its last passenger B747 last year and Singapore Airlines and the two major Japanese carriers retired their jumbos several years ago.
