Air India Finally Sells Off Four Boeing 747-400s To Aftermarket Aviation Company

Air India’s remaining Boeing 747 aircraft have reportedly found a new owner, officially ending the carrier’s association with the jumbo jet. Once an integral part of its long-haul fleet, the 747 was gradually replaced by newer, more fuel-efficient twin-engine jets in Air India. The latest development also marks the end of the marketing efforts to sell these parked planes that have not flown for the carrier in the last few years.

Air India sells its remaining Boeing 747 airplanes

According to a report by The Economic Times, Air India’s remaining four Boeing 747-400 airplanes have found a new owner – US-based AerSale, a supplier of aftermarket commercial jet engines and parts.

According to people familiar with the matter, two of these airplanes will likely have a new stint as converted freighters, while the other two could end up in a scrapyard and disassembled. ch-aviation also reports that up until last week, only one of the aircraft had been sold, and while agreements for the remaining three have been signed, they remained unfinalized. One of these planes was acquired in 1993, the second in 1994, and two others in 1996.

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While Air India’s Boeing 747 operations were on a decline anyway, the COVID-19 pandemic quickened their retirement. In their last days, they were also mainly used for VVIP flights, including transporting the Prime Minister and the President of the country on their official visits.

The carrier last flew the 747s in 2021, and since then, they’ve been parked at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The carrier’s new management selected British aircraft service provider Skytech-AIC to sell the 747s in 2022. Since then, they’ve been busy trying to find a buyer for these jets, and it seems that task is now almost complete.

Air India and Boeing 747

Over the decades, Air India has operated 31 Boeing 747s, although not all were registered in India. The carrier was an early adopter of the type, having received its first jumbo in 1971. Several 747-200s were added to the carrier’s fleet over the next two decades, followed by the 747-300 in the 80s. The 747-400 variant of the plane with the stretched upper deck arrived in the 1990s.

The jumbo jet defined India’s golden age of air travel back in the day, opening up several new routes and adding capacity to Air India’s network with better fuel economics compared to previous generation planes. The carrier even branded the upper deck as “Your Palace in the Sky,” with its amenities such as lounges and bars and a unique menu.

Even the pilots who flew Air India’s 747s got nostalgic and remembered the good old days of flying the aircraft. The Economic Times quotes one of them as saying,

“Once we had landed at Nagpur with the 747 and the entire airport was outside looking at the magnificent machine. We requested for 90 tonnes of fuel and the airport scattered to organise that because they didn’t need that much fuel in a single day.”

With that chapter closed, Air India will now march ahead with new generation aircraft, such as the Airbus A350s and the Dreamliners, for its long-haul operations as it looks to develop into a world-class airline.

Have you traveled on Air India’s 747s? What was the experience like? Let us know in the comments below.