gordon0808

From pprune:
quote
The retirement of the first BA 747-400s has just been released by
Engineering planning dept.....G-BNLB and C will be stood down within
the next few weeks followed by NLA in January!. All three a/c are to
have the interiors stripped out at LHR after which they will be flown
to either Arizona/New Mexico or possibly Kemble for scrapping/part
reclamation. Early indications are that these first three will be
followed by two more airframes in April 09."

A sad day for sure but an inevitable one.

alasdair_m

Not better sending them to Cardiff to donate parts to benefit the rest of the fleet?

alasdair_m

Could the 77W order be cancelled with the 747-8 the preferred option?

astralclouds

I can't help but think that the (next) halcyon days of BA will be between the F refit and the decomissioning of the last 747s.

Anyone care to guess when (month, year) would be the last commercial flight of a BA liveried Jumbo?

ANstar

So what happens to the routes they flew after winter? will they go 777 with the new delvieries due early next year?

could we see LHR-BKK-SYD go 777 also?

TravelBuddha

Anything is possible, but this is highly unlikely. Only way this happens is if a) GE gives up exclusivity rights for the 748i engines, allowing BA to purchase Trent 1000's on the 748 b) doing so would invalidate the agreement that got them the A380 pricing, so they'd also have to cancel the 380 order. I for one wouldn't mind seeing the second happen, not becuse I dislike the 380, but rather see it as a large departure from BA's MO. They've never been one for flooding the market with cheap Y seats.

BA's ops to Oz could very well be permanently downgraded to 777's. With so many airlines competing on LHR-SYD route doing so with A380's the prospect for massive overcapacity is very real. BA might not want to play the game and leave the lions share of OZ service to the QF JSA and its 380's.

DannyTP

Does anyone know for definite whether BA are scrapping the 747-400's or are they just being stored during the downturn?

Thanks.

Jumbodriver

Theyre just stored.

cornishsimon

so what capacity does CWL have for storage of a/c?

CT-UK

You could easily get 6 or 7 744s around the side of the maintenance base without getting in the way.

on 9/11 they had a lot parked up when we landed after being turned back from LAX.

cornishsimon

What other airports are available in the UK for temporary parking of a/c?

CT-UK

Lasham
Prestwick would be another, manston another.

cornishsimon

With NQY taking over the entire raf st mawgan site from 1st December 08 is there any chance of seeing some of the BA aircraft parked up at NQY along with other carriers ?

After all NQY has got loads of parking available when it takes over the entire site, with all the ex raf hangars and etc etc etc???

CT-UK

NQY would have a bit of a problem with salt air being on the coast with a SW wind. Not that any of the others are that far from it but NQY is on the cliff.

mm. just checked prestwick and that is also right on the coast.

cornishsimon

True!

was just posing the question! being local it would be good to see some use come of the facilities at NQY after 1st December........ some short term storage would be a good use of the ample hangars etc ex RAF!