Boeing757100 wrote:Are there any buyers for N458BJ which has been stored BSL for 9+ years?
I think the list of customers who can afford a B747-8i is pretty short, those oil-rich countries Sheikhs/ Sultans in ME are best bet. Even so, most of them have upgraded their fleet to B787-8i, except few.
Dubai Air Wing has two full pax and two Combi B744 which may due for retirement soon. The youngest is 22 years old. Maybe they can get it to replace one of the two B747 pax (A6-HRM 22 years old and A6-MMM 22 years old) they bought from UA when the latter rejected its lease during Chapter 11 filing. The two Combi (A6-COM ex-AC 30 years old and A6-HMM ex-SW 23 years old) usually fly in Combi with horses of the Royal Family equestrian team or for humanitarian aids. I don't see them replacing these two soon as Boeing doesn't make Combis anymore. They have another B744F A6-GGP which also fly the horses around the world. They most probably will get one of those SV stored B748i as its replacement or any younger 744F out there.
The other possible client would be
Bahrain Royal Flight. They have two B744s, one of them A9C-HAK is going to be 22 years old soon. The other B744 A9C-HMK is 18 years old, not going anywhere soon.
Maybe
State of Kuwait can add another -8i, after all they have one now, no harm to add another since good things come in pairs.
Same goes to
Royal Flight of Oman, which has a B747SP (A4O-SO) in storage and a B747-430 (A4O-OMN) hitting 20 years old soon. They already have one -8i (A4O-HMS).
Who knows it may ended up with
Saudi Royal Family after all, since their B743 (HZ-HM1A) is no longer flying. Their sole B744 (HZ-HM1) isn't very young either at 20 years old. They need something big to replace it one-to-one. Their fleet shrunk considerably over the years, only 5 in active fleet now. L-1011, MD-11, B747SP all seven of them were collectively retired and there weren't any replacement. They did take in one special A342 ultra long range HZ-HMS2, that's all. Haven't gotten themselves any B747 replacement.