Description
Over past 50 years Boeing 747 has helped revolutionized international air travel. Its invention allowed the expansion of giant hub airports, where travellers could undertake long overhaul journeys. Boeing 747 has been one of the oldest "large" passenger flights for half a century. Owned by the american owned aerospace company Boeing 747 was nicknamed as the "pretty woman". However 2020 was the year when the company announced its plans to end production of this history-making aircraft by 2022.
The first plane to be nicknamed as the "jumbo jet" 747, the plane was capable of accommodating over 600 passengers in its double decked body. It has two aisle and four wing-mounted engines. It was first flown by PanAm airlines in 1970. It was the leading choice for airlines when it came to long distance flights and was fuel efficient too. It has been upgraded from time to time to meet the requirements of the industry and that is one of the main reasons it has survived in the market for so long. Presently over 1500 747's have been built and 15 more are to be delivered. However it faced tough competition when Airbus launched its own long overhaul giant the Airbus A380. However it was not the reason behind its production being decided to be closed. In 2020, as with every other industry aviation industry took a huge slump. Boeing recorded a loss of $2.4 billions in the second quarter of 2020 which was worse than what the investors had expected. British airways did not take much time to announce retirement of its 41 fleet of Boeing 747 in july of the year. British Airways had the maximum number of 747 and it made up 10% of its own fleet. Not just BA but airlines in general have reduced demand for these giant planes as manufacturers are coming up with compact version of these planes able to travel long distance with much lesser fuel consumption.
As of July 2020, 61 Boeing 747 have been involved in a crash and it has led to death of 3722 people. It is the air craft with the highest number of crashed. Airlines consider it no longer as their favorite choice as the market has seen growth of many new and advanced long over haul planes. All these factors together have led to the the end of production of 747.
