UK Has No Boeing 747 Passenger Flights In 2026

Current schedule modifications have confirmed that Korean Air won’t be bringing its Boeing 747-8 double-decker widebody quadjets again to the UK this yr. The kind had initially been slated to serve the route between the provider’s principal hub at Seoul Incheon Worldwide Airport(ICN) and London Heathrow (LHR), however, now, the Boeing 777-300ER will take its place, which means that the ‘triple-seven’ serves the route all yr spherical.

Such modifications are removed from remarkable, with airways continually having to juggle capability and demand in an effort to make one of the best use of their fleet, significantly on costly long-haul routes similar to Seoul to London. Nevertheless, this alteration has elevated significance because it additionally represents the tip of the final scheduled business passenger path to and from the UK that was utilizing the Boeing 747, bringing an finish to the nation’s jumbo period.

Swapped For The 777

Whereas the coronavirus pandemic decimated 747 operations within the UK, with BA and Virgin Atlantic retiring their jumbos because of this, the trade’s restoration noticed Korean Air resume flights with the 747-8 from Seoul to London in June 2024. This seasonal enhance noticed the kind take over from the 777-300ER till October of that yr, with the South Korean flag provider repeating the trick in 2025. Final yr, these providers ended on October 31.

Initially, scheduling information from Cirium, an aviation analytics firm, confirmed that the 747-8 was set to return to the route this summer season. Now, nevertheless, the positioning’s ‘Current Modifications Report’ reveals that the three deliberate weekly spherical journeys with the kind in July, August, and September have been shelved, with the 777-300ER serving this route all yr spherical as an alternative. As such, the period of scheduled passenger 747 operations within the UK has reached its finish.

Easy Flying reached out to Korean Air for additional data on the plane change, however didn’t get a response by the point of publication. We’ll replace our protection if and after we obtain a press release.

The place Can You Discover Korean Air’s Boeing 747-8s As an alternative?

After all, cargo airways will proceed to fly Boeing 747 freighters to and from the UK in the meanwhile. Nevertheless, this shall be of scant comfort to these within the nation who may need wished to fly to Seoul for the aim of driving the jumbo jet, and can now must journey elsewhere to take action.

By way of Korean Air’s present Boeing 747-8 operations, Cirium reveals that the airline has scheduled precisely 100 flights with the kind this month, with 88 being discovered on the route from Seoul to Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX). These 44 flights in every course equate to 11 rotations per week throughout February, underlining excessive demand on the route. Korean Air additionally flies the 747-8 to Hong Kong (HKG), Taipei (TPE), and Tokyo Narita (NRT).

In keeping with ch-aviation, Korean Air’s Boeing 747-8 fleet now consists of simply 4 passenger examples of the kind and 7 freighters, with these sub-fleets boasting respective ages of 9.3 and 12.4 years outdated. The passenger examples have six first-class, 48 enterprise class, and 314 economic system seats on board.

This Time 10 & 20 Years In the past

Wanting again in time, we will see that the UK was a a lot busier market so far as Boeing 747 operations went. 10 years in the past in February 2016, for instance, there have been 884 scheduled 747 departures from the nation. Whereas most of those have been operated, as seen above, by British Airways on high-demand long-haul routes, there have been additionally El Al flights to Tel Aviv, with Virgin Atlantic flying the kind from Manchester and London Gatwick.

Going again one other 10 years, to February 2006, reveals even higher range, with 2,168 Boeing 747 departures scheduled from the UK that month at a mean fee of over 77 a day. Alongside BA’s apparent dominance, carriers similar to Air India, Air China, Air New Zealand, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Cubana, Iran Air, JAL, Excel, Malaysia Airways, PIA, Qantas, Singapore Airways, South African, Syrianair, Thai, United, and Virgin additionally used the kind.