The 747 models are increasingly a bad fit for airlines. The 773 provides significant lift (about 50 fewer seats than a 744) but does it on only two engines. Two engines means half the engine maintenance cost and half the spares inventory, as well as a better fuel burn per seat ratio. The smaller lift of the 773 makes it slightly more flexible than a 744, and type commonality with the 772 means lower crew costs in terms of training and scheduling flexibility. For many operators the 747 was never the right airplane.

The Queen of the Skies is in her decline. Major operators have been steadily shedding them (JL, SQ, CX) and over half of the passenger versions of the 744 delivered are now mothballed or converted to freighter use. It is as freighters (the purpose for which she was originally designed) that the 747 continues to find its best fit.

For carriers heavily invested in 744s (like BA and LH) new aircraft can't come on stream fast enough. But only three carriers have decided that the 748 is the new equipment of choice. Everyone else has gone in for 777s, A380s or both.