The freight comment has shown up in a few posts on this topic. I met a pilot for Nippon Freight recently who was telling me that they don't like the 747 for freight. He says that it can carry so much weight that their fuel utilization is not very good. In his case, he was flying Japan to Anchorage and then having an overnight stop to refuel before going on. He said on some of the smaller, more fuel efficient aircraft that they can go all the way to Atlanta or Chicago, etc. on a single tank of fuel which means they get to be home more.

But agree the 747 certainly seems to have an ongoing role here.