The Boeing 747 bowed out of production in January 2023, when the final 747-8 freighter went to Atlas Air. But its last two passenger generations — the 747-400 and the 747-8 — tell a fascinating story of an icon evolving just as the market turned against four-engined jets.
The 747-400 arrived with Northwest Airlines in February 1989 and became the best-selling jumbo of all: 694 delivered across passenger, freighter and combi versions. It brought six-foot winglets, a fuel-saving two-crew glass cockpit that eliminated the flight engineer, and engine choice between GE, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce. Seats: 416 in a typical three-class layout, with a range of about 7,285 nautical miles.
The 747-8 Intercontinental, launched by Lufthansa in June 2012, stretched the fuselage to 250 feet — nearly 20 feet longer than the -400 — with capacity for 467 passengers in three classes, a bigger wingspan and raked wingtips borrowed from the 787. Four GE GEnx-2B engines cut fuel burn per seat by around 16% and shrank the noise footprint by 30%, with costs per seat-mile about 13% lower. Crucially, pilots needed only difference training to switch between the two, since Boeing kept the flight deck familiar. Cabin-wise, the -8 gained 787-style overhead bins, lighting and interior architecture; Lufthansa fits its 747-8s with 364 seats including eight first-class suites.
Commercially, though, the newer jet flopped: just 155 built, only 48 of them passenger aircraft. By 2012, twinjets like the 777-300ER, 787 and A350 let airlines fly long-haul routes with less capacity and lower costs, so jumbo economics stopped adding up. Today the type lives on mainly as a freighter — 107 of 155 were cargo planes, prized for the nose door that swallows oversized loads.
For travellers, the window to fly a passenger jumbo is closing. Lufthansa remains the largest operator, running 18 747-8s and eight 747-400s, mostly out of Frankfurt, while Korean Air and Air China also fly the 747-8. Rossiya still operates 747-400s in Russia. If the idea of the upper deck appeals, a Frankfurt round trip is the easiest way to log one before these queens of the skies disappear for good.
