I don't want to discuss the content of that article here yet again, but one half-sentence therein got my attention: they mention "the 16 major 747 operators" - so I wondered, which carriers this might refer to. I came up with (in no particular order):
Singapore Airlines
Qantas
Air New Zealand
Thai
Malaysian Airlines
Lufthansa
Air France
British Airways
JAL
ANA
Air China
China Airlines
Northwest
United
This would make 14. So - who else is operating the 747, and also, are all those airlines I listed meant to be "major" 747 operators?
Manni From South Korea, joined Nov 2001, 4221 posts, RR: 23 Reply 2, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 9245 times:
Quoting Haggis79 (Thread starter):
This would make 14. So - who else is operating the 747, and also, are all those airlines I listed meant to be "major" 747 operators?
Hasn't Air New Zealand a rather small 747 fleet compared to the others? I'd include South African and KLM, aswell as Korean, Virgin and Saoudi Arabian. How big is Air China's 747 fleet?
Haggis79 From Germany, joined Jun 2006, 1096 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 4 hours ago) and read 9209 times:
Shame on me for forgetting KLM and Virgin...
it's kinda late here, maybe I should rather go to bed.... I agree, Air NZ is probably not one of the really big 747 operators.... don't know about Air China, though...
CX777Fan From Australia, joined Feb 2005, 289 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 9053 times:
Air India have a few, don't know whether they would make the top 16. Don't forget Iran Air's classics and SPs as well. Asiana have at least half a dozen 744 combis. Do EVA have any 747s? Garuda?
Air Pacific is another minor player with a couple of 747s.
Keesje From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 9005 times:
JAPAN AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL 70
BRITISH AIRWAYS 57
NORTHWEST AIRLINES 46
KOREAN AIR 45
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 37
QANTAS 36
CHINA AIRLINES 33
AIR FRANCE 32
UNITED AIRLINES 31
LUFTHANSA 30
ATLAS AIR 27
SINGAPORE AIRLINES 27
KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES 25
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS 23
SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES 23
AIR ATLANTA ICELANDIC 22
MALAYSIA AIRLINES 21
THAI AIRWAYS INTERNATIONAL 20
EVA AIR 18
KALITTA AIR 18
AIR INDIA 16
IRAN AIR 15
SINGAPORE AIRLINES CARGO 15
ASIANA AIRLINES 14
CARGOLUX AIRLINES 14
EVERGREEN INTERNATIONAL 13
VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS 13
AIR CHINA 12
NIPPON CARGO AIRLINES 12
PIA 11
POLAR AIR CARGO 11
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS 11
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE 11
EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES 10
CXA330300 From South Africa, joined May 2004, 1500 posts, RR: 2 Reply 15, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 8947 times:
Quoting Keesje (Reply 12): JAPAN AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL 70
BRITISH AIRWAYS 57
NORTHWEST AIRLINES 46
KOREAN AIR 45
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 37
QANTAS 36
CHINA AIRLINES 33
AIR FRANCE 32
UNITED AIRLINES 31
LUFTHANSA 30
ATLAS AIR 27
SINGAPORE AIRLINES 27
KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES 25
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS 23
SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES 23
AIR ATLANTA ICELANDIC 22
There are the sixteen major operators.
How many operators all together?
The sky is the limit as long as you can stay there
MauriceB From Netherlands, joined Aug 2004, 2477 posts, RR: 28 Reply 17, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 8822 times:
Quote: JAPAN AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL 70
BRITISH AIRWAYS 57
NORTHWEST AIRLINES 46
KOREAN AIR 45
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 37
QANTAS 36
CHINA AIRLINES 33
AIR FRANCE 32
UNITED AIRLINES 31
LUFTHANSA 30
ATLAS AIR 27
SINGAPORE AIRLINES 27
KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES 25
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS 23
SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES 23
AIR ATLANTA ICELANDIC 22
MALAYSIA AIRLINES 21
THAI AIRWAYS INTERNATIONAL 20
EVA AIR 18
KALITTA AIR 18
AIR INDIA 16
IRAN AIR 15
SINGAPORE AIRLINES CARGO 15
ASIANA AIRLINES 14
CARGOLUX AIRLINES 14
EVERGREEN INTERNATIONAL 13
VIRGIN ATLANTIC AIRWAYS 13
AIR CHINA 12
NIPPON CARGO AIRLINES 12
PIA 11
POLAR AIR CARGO 11
SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS 11
UNITED PARCEL SERVICE 11
EL AL ISRAEL AIRLINES 10
Actually SQ should be 5th at the list, because you also counted the KL cargo planes in the 25 listed, and when you count the 15 cargo planes up to the 27 pax planes you would get 43...
Manni From South Korea, joined Nov 2001, 4221 posts, RR: 23 Reply 18, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 8726 times:
What % of the the worlds active 747 fleet would these 16 airlines fly combined? Passenger and cargo aircraft seperated and let us count combi's as passenger aircraft.
Quoting CXA330300 (Reply 15): Quoting Keesje (Reply 12):
JAPAN AIRLINES INTERNATIONAL 70
BRITISH AIRWAYS 57
NORTHWEST AIRLINES 46
KOREAN AIR 45
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS 37
QANTAS 36
CHINA AIRLINES 33
AIR FRANCE 32
UNITED AIRLINES 31
LUFTHANSA 30
ATLAS AIR 27
SINGAPORE AIRLINES 27
KLM ROYAL DUTCH AIRLINES 25
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS 23
SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES 23
AIR ATLANTA ICELANDIC 22
Total is 560 for passenger and cargo aircraft combined. However I would add SIA's 15 freighters to the list aswell, take out Air Atlanta Icelandic and replace it with number 17 on the list, MH. That would give a total of 574.
Can anyone come up with a list of the current 16 biggest 744 operators? I guess that would add TG, MH and OZ to the list and atleast eliminate Air Atlanta Icelandic, Polar and ...?
There might be 15 747s delivered to Iran, but a fair number of those is operated for the Iranian Air Force, also some of them are grounded for good AFAIK.
Airbazar From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 6869 posts, RR: 7 Reply 23, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 8362 times:
Quoting Baflyer (Reply 20): So if we now have the top 16 list how do Airbus claim they have half of them as customers?
If you count only top 16 passenger carriers operating the 747, using the above list, IIRC at least 7 of them have ordered the A380. That's pretty close to half of them.
Manni From South Korea, joined Nov 2001, 4221 posts, RR: 23 Reply 24, posted (6 years 9 months 1 week 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 8334 times:
Quoting Baflyer (Reply 20): So if we now have the top 16 list how do Airbus claim they have half of them as customers?
I can only see SQ, AF, LH, KE and QF. That's less than a third.
Something might have been lost in the translation, I doubt Air Icelandic's fleet of 747's classic and Atlas Air Cargo's fleet are of any relevance when talking about the worlds largest 747 "airlines". That would move MH and TG (2 A380 customers) into the top 16.
Another possibility is the worlds largest 747 airlines quote was the worlds largest 744 airlines.
Or is a A380 order on the horizon...
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25 BAflyer: Fair comments - but Airbus are doing exactly what they are complaining Boeing are doing - massaging the numbers to suit their own purpose. They both
26 Gr8Circle: AI currently have a fleet of 14 747s, consisting of 12 744's and 2 743's....
27 Richardw: Which airport, and at what time of day, has the largest number of B747 on the ground?
28 AMSSFO: from http://airlinerlist.com/ which is one of the more reliable sites 67 Japan AL 57 British AW 46 Korean Air 41 Singapore AL 36 Cathay Pacific 35 Qan
29 EDDB: If I were an Airbus manager I would be very relaxed, cause if only have of these 'Big 16' orders the A380 equivalent to the number of 747s they're ope
30 1337Delta764: JAL is even larger, with 60. BA operates more 747-400s though.
31 Haggis79: actually, what I was just wondering.... may they have counted KL and AF as one?
32 LHR777: True - in fact, BA operates only 747-400's!
33 Jfr: The Polar numbers should be for Atlas and Polar together - same company after all.......
34 KLM685: No they're not, they were counted as individual airlines.
35 Lijnden: What about a list of only the original buyers of 747's of all series? I am sure we will see Pan Am up there as well as TWA and not Polar Tigers. How a
36 Mowtoib: Not quite true... If we look at the list compiled by Keesje and edited by CXA330300 (note his nick!) we will actually see more Airbus customers: BA -
37 Skip17: According to wikipedia (althought not sure precise) these are the top: Japan Airlines (60) British Airways (57) Korean Air (42) Cathay Pacific (37) Ai
38 KBGRbillT: I 2nd that, and the thread is asking for the 16 major Operators, not just passenger airlines so with 41 B747F's (according to Atlas's website) that w
39 Tbear815: Mowtoib - Even though they have few, both SQ and TG fly the A340-500. And yes, it would be interesting to see what airline has ordered the most 747's
40 ZK-NBT: JL by a country mile!! I'm not sure exactly how many but it would be around 120+! I think JL's include Freighters aswell.
41 VV701: Sorry. I thought it was clear that I was responding to a question about operators of the 744 and not all models of the 747:
42 BA787: BA operates the biggest fleet of 744's JAL operates the biggest combined fleet
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