Brand new Boeing 747 scrapped after 16 flights

A Boeing 747 configured as a private VIP jet is being scrapped after having spent just 30 hours in service over 16 flights. The aircraft, originally intended for a Saudi royal, sat on the ground for almost 10 years at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, located at the border between France, Switzerland and Germany. There, it was meant to be fitted with a lavish interior, but that never happened, and after failing to find a new buyer, the plane was eventually flown to Pinal Airpark in Arizona – an aircraft boneyard where retired planes get stripped for parts or stored indefinitely. The plane is a BBJ, for “Boeing Business Jet” – heavily modified editions of Boeing’s jetliners targeted to governments and corporate clients. Its range of over 10,000 miles and cabin space of about 5,000 square feet are unrivaled by any other business aircraft. It’s also the most advanced model of the Boeing 747 ever produced – the 747-8 variant – which first flew in 2010 but failed to find commercial success due to being expensive to operate. The final one, delivered to cargo operator Atlas Air in early 2023, marked the end of the 747’s production history, though the variant still has a future in the spotlight: two 747-8s are currently being transformed into the next Air Force One planes. Boeing has sold over 250 BBJs to date, the vast majority of them 737s, which have a broader market appeal. The large, expensive, four-engined BBJ 747-8 was a harder sell: “Ten were built in total, and this is the first one retired,” says Connor Diver, a senior analyst at aviation analytics firm Cirium. “It’s not transparent who exactly is buying them, but it’s a very, very large private aircraft and the only operators or buyers tend to be governments and royal families.”<br/>