The last KLM Boeing 747 has landed at Schiphol at 3.30 pm. The Dutch airline has thus said goodbye to the iconic aircraft, which is also called the ‘Queen of the Skies’.
It is a Boeing 747-400 with the name ‘City of Tokyo’ and registration mark PH-BFT. The last flight of the jumbo jet in the service of KLM took off from Mexico City.
The Boeing 747 joined KLM’s fleet in 1971 and was originally planned to be phased out in 2021 after exactly fifty years of service. Due to the corona crisis, the four-engine aircraft has now been said goodbye. The flights of the 747 are taken over by the twin-engine and more economical Boeing 777 and 787 dreamliner.
KLM still had seven passenger variants of the 747 in service, the City of Lima (PH-BFL) being the oldest with more than 28 years of service. The last 747 was delivered in 2002, the City of Johannesburg (PH-BFY). Three freight variants in use at subsidiary Martinair Holland will continue to fly.
KLM has flown 46 different 747s
In total, KLM has used 46 747s. One of them was involved in a serious accident. The PH-BUF (Rhine) crashed on March 27, 1977 at Tenerife Airport during take-off on another 747 from Pan Am, killing all 248 occupants of the Dutch aircraft. In total, 583 were killed in the accident.
The PH-BFC ran into serious trouble over Alaska in 1989 when the plane flew through the ash clouds of Mount Redoubt volcano, causing all four engines to fail. In the end, the pilots managed to get two engines working again, after which the plane could safely land in Anchorage.
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The iconic landing of a KLM Boeing 747 on the island of Sint Maarten has been a tourist attraction for years (Photo: Getty Images)
Four-engine aircraft are becoming scarcer
Boeing screwed together more than 1,500 jumbo jets since the late 1960s. With a wingspan of more than 64 meters and a length of more than 70 meters, the 747 among the passenger aircraft must only tolerate the A380 as the largest aircraft above them. Due to the declining demand of large four-engine aircraft, there is little chance that a real successor to the 747 will be employed by KLM.
The accelerated retirements will likely go to the California desert, where they will be disassembled for the sale of individual parts.
KLM also announced this week that it will be entering the summer season as a result of the corona crisis, with a considerably thinned out timetable. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, many restrictions apply to air traffic.
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