4 ex BA 747’s find new home
 

According to the website Jethro’s Fleet Listing 4 Ex BA 747’s G-CIVA, G-CIVS, G-CIVT and G-CIVX were yesterday registered to a yet to be named Russian airline. All 4 aircraft have been stored at Teruel (TEV) since April.

Jethro's Previous Updates

It is not clear whether the aircraft are to return to service or to be used for parts by the new owner.

The Russian carrier Rossiya had been rumoured back in September to have been interested in acquiring some of BA’s parked 747’s.

FWIW, these are four of the eight aircraft that remained on the register. G-INFO has now updated these as transferred out.

The others that are still registered are G-CIVJ, G-CIVR, G-BYGB and G-BYGE. I hope that they too will find new homes.

Rossiya has indeed 9 747s, all parked as far as Airfleets is concerned. They have them with PW engines, CF6 engines... all they need is the RBs and they've got 'em all! The one bit that makes me think it mightn't be them is the fact that Rossiya registered their 74s in Ireland whereas Jethro's website is saying that they'll be in the more traditional (for Russia) VP reg. Maybe they'll be configured as cargos, although without the nose door?

Good news if true. Hopefully they will fly again, and have a continued service life ahead of them.
I'm surprised more of the younger aircraft were not kept on the register and for sale.

CAA has the Turuel aircraft as exported to Bermuda...

It could be AirBridgeCargo or someone else from the Volga-Dnepr Group that's bought them and planning to convert them to freighters. They had four 747-8F's on order with Boeing, cancelled one of them (and some 777F's) due to lack of cash in early 2020 then rescinded the cancellation leading to a court case as Boeing had already resold the 747 to Atlas. The other three 747s have also since been sold to Atlas.

I did some more digging around and I think that the only Russian airline with RB211s is SkyGate. They have two former Cathay Pacific 747 Freighters with quite the livery:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...121a4e628e.jpg

G-CIVR which is also at TEV is to be the 5th and final 747 to be registered to a new owner.

G-BYGB, G-BYGE and G-CIVJ are to remain at GBA.

any idea who the buyer is ??

My thinking exactly, since they announced recently that they are pulling the Antonovs from all non-outsize operation.

The possibility of Rossiya being the buyer should be kept in mind too - i just hope they will not be used for spareparts - but on the other hand - nobody would re register them just to scrap it.....

The other thing to bear in mind is that where aircraft are parted out, I read somewhere there is a tendency to register them on the US or UK or EU registrations as parts are worth more. Therefore even if they were being parted out for a Russian operator, any non-required parts would worth more if taken from a G or N reg aircraft. I can't remember where I read this, but it might have been with ref to QF 744s.

I'm pretty sure it is common for parts companies/airlines to buy aircraft, register them to their country of origin/a tax pleasing country and then literally fly them to wherever they part them out and then deregister them again.

From the Bermudian press today:-

"Stories in the aviation press that four former British Airways 747 aircraft have been registered in Bermuda are wide of the mark, the head of the island’s Civil Aviation Authority revealed.Thomas Dunstan, director-general of the BCAA, said: “We are aware that these aircraft have been de-registered from the UK aircraft registry but, despite the stories circulating, we have not been approached to register them. At least not yet.”

Mr Dunstan was speaking after the appearance of numerous stories in the aviation press, including on the website Simple Flying that said that the four jumbo jets had been registered in Bermuda."

British Airways’ retired 747s not registered in Bermuda - The Royal Gazette | Bermuda News, Business, Sports, Events, & Community |

That's curious, as G-INFO expressly says:

We need insight from someone who has transfered registration of an aircraft.
Can you de-register, stating where you intend to re-register, but not actually have completed (or begun) that registration process?
What paperwork would the CAA need to see before they would list this in their entry....? There is also a review date for the de-registration, so I guess we should know by then what is actually happening