Boeing ends 747 aircraft production, closing the era of jumbo jets as coronavirus decimates air travel

The last of Boeing’s 747-8 will roll out of a Seattle-area factory in about two years, according to people familiar with the mater

Airbus is already preparing to build the last A380 jumbo, after the final convoy of fuselage segments rumbled to its Toulouse, France, plant last month

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Boeing 747 cargo planes carrying the livery of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s hometown airline and one of the world’s largest air freight carriers, at Chek Lap Kok airport on 4 September 2008. Photo: SCMP

Published: 3:03pm, 3 Jul 2020Updated: 3:51pm, 3 Jul 2020

Boeing hasn’t told employees, but the company is pulling the plug on its hulking 747 jumbo jet, ending a half-century run for the twin-aisle pioneer.

The last 747-8 will roll out of a Seattle-area factory in about two years, a decision that hasn’t been reported but can be teased out from subtle wording changes in financial statements, people familiar with the matter said.

It’s a moment that aviation enthusiasts long have dreaded, signalling the end of the double-decker, four-engine leviathans that shrank the world. Airbus is already preparing to build the last A380 jumbo, after the final convoy of fuselage segments rumbled to its Toulouse, France, plant last month.

Yet for all their popularity with travellers, the final version of the 747 and Europe’s superjumbo never caught on commercially as airlines turned to twin-engined aircraft for long-range flights. While Boeing’s hump-nosed freighters will live on, the fast-disappearing A380 risks going down as an epic dud.

Boeing 747 aircraft carrying the livery of Cathay Pacific Airways, one of the airline’s first Jumbo passenger aircraft, landing at the former Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong on 31 July 1979. Photo: P. Y. Tang

The grand jetliners also face another indignity: The Covid-19 pandemic threatens to leave their manufacturers scrounging to find buyers for the last jumbos built.