Delta Air Lines Inc. is down to nine Boeing 747 jumbo jets as it prepares to retire the fleet entirely by the end of 2017.
Delta spokesman Michael Thomas says the fleet will shrink to seven by the end of this year.
Atlanta-based Delta (NYSE: DAL) inherited 30 of the double-decker aircraft in its 2008 acquisition of Eagan-based Northwest Airlines, including 16 of the fourth-generation 747-400 jets that let NWA fly longer international routes than ever before. Delta was down to just a dozen of the 747-400s as recently as last year.
Of its nine active 747s, Delta owns four and leases the other five, according to a June 30 regulatory filing. The planes have an average age of about 24 years.
Delta already replaced the four-engine 747s on Minneapolis routes with twin-engine Boeing 777, Boeing 767 and Airbus A330 passenger jets, and ordered smaller, more fuel-efficient Airbus A350-900 twin-engine jets to replace the remaining 747s serving Hawaii and Asia.
"We are restructuring our Pacific fleet by removing less efficient B-747-400 aircraft and replacing them with smaller-gauge, widebody aircraft to better match capacity with demand," Delta said in its most recent quarterly filing.
Among Delta's remaining fleet is the oldest Boeing 747-400 that's still in the air. Built in 1988, that former NWA jet (tail No. N662US) flies to and from Detroit, Manila, Honolulu, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Osaka and Incheon, South Korea.
Its older NWA sister (tail no. N661US) was the first 747-400 Boeing built for a commercial airline and retired this year to be displayed at the Delta Flight Museum in Atlanta.
Another former NWA 747 (tail No. N664US) was damaged and taken out of service last year after flying through a hailstorm over China. A newer NWA 747 came out of retirement to replace that aircraft.
To learn more about the 747's Minnesota legacy and what's coming next, read my cover story in Friday's Business Journal Weekly Edition.
