Flying a new type and checking the box is a thrill only an avgeek can appreciate - I recently added the Boeing 767-400 to my list, for example. Many regular Delta and United flyers probably laugh at this, and admittedly it is not the most exciting type to add, but considering only two mainstream airlines fly the plane it will probably disappear quickly once UA and DL decide to end 767 operations in a few years time. Similar to this, although operated by more carriers, is the flying pencil B757-300.

What other types are out there that are exceedingly rare or are nearing extinction? I know nobody is flying the B727 these days, so no need to lament those types that have departed the gate for the last time, but which are still operating (for now)? I have to think the once ubiquitous B737-200 is one such example, literally down to single-digit numbers anywhere in the world, and you'd have to go to Canada to fly one.
What else?

richierich

The 767-400 is an interesting model. Only 48 frames were built for Continental and Delta with the split at 21 and 28, but I can't remember who got which sets of frames. The landing gear was unique and spares were an issue when changing out a set to be overhauled.

Are we talking just aircraft still flown in N. America, or global ? How niche of an airline will you accept to include an aircraft type ? Does it have to be an airline with an AOC, or do you allow private flights in claiming an aircraft ?

richierich wrote:

I have to think the once ubiquitous B737-200 is one such example, literally down to single-digit numbers anywhere in the world

Personally, I'd replace the 737-200 with the 737-500 (and maybe even the whole of the 737 classic series) because aside from the 737-400Fs (which might actually increase in numbers slightly!!) the 733s and 735s are basically done for. But the 737-500 in particular I think has got it worse since there is no afterlife for it. At least there are some 733Fs which could continue in small numbers, but the 735 has no such thing. Besides, according to a recent article, the 737-500 has only 3 routes out of the US left.
https://simpleflying.com/us-boeing-737-500-routes/

Aside from Bahamasair, there are few major airline names that operate this plane. Sure maybe some list of airlines in Africa could come to mind, but aside from there, it's a short list. (Best I could come up was UTAir, Air North, Armenian, and SCAT). Aside from these that I mentioned, it's either some charter company in remote Africa/South America/Indonesia that is not very well known to the flying public or an airline with some troubling safety records. Even the ones I mentioned may either be relatively unknown to the flying public or have some safety issues.
https://www.planespotters.net/operators ... 37/737-500

Besides, Wikipedia said as of 2019, 134 737-500s were still flying. That number has for sure got to be lower now.
https://www.planespotters.net/operators ... 37/737-500

I would agree that the 737-500s are going to be hard to come by. Nothing special about the bird. Last I flew on one was 2005….

767-400s will be with us for a bit and so will the 757-300. But the 747-400s are disappearing from passenger flying outside of charter and cargo ops….

Erau82 wrote:

The 767-400 is an interesting model. Only 48 frames were built for Continental and Delta with the split at 21 and 28, but I can't remember who got which sets of frames. The landing gear was unique and spares were an issue when changing out a set to be overhauled.

Actually, only 37 frames were built for commercial service with 1 additional for military test bed.

Delta received 21 aircraft and Continental the other 16 (with zero unfilled orders). The 1 military plane was sold as a VIP transport and is operated by Bahrain Royal Flight.

burnsie28 wrote:

Erau82 wrote:

The 767-400 is an interesting model. Only 48 frames were built for Continental and Delta with the split at 21 and 28, but I can't remember who got which sets of frames. The landing gear was unique and spares were an issue when changing out a set to be overhauled.

Actually, only 37 frames were built for commercial service with 1 additional for military test bed.

Delta received 21 aircraft and Continental the other 16 (with zero unfilled orders). The 1 military plane was sold as a VIP transport and is operated by Bahrain Royal Flight.

When I flew on one a couple of years ago JFK to LAX I had no idea what a rare bird they were.
I was rather hoping for a first flight on a 757.

747-300, only one in service at Mahan air, EP-MNE (which was stored for 5 years after its engines exploded on final, but got replacement engines from its sister bird who reached the end of her miles) the only classic 747 flying passenger operations. There are only 2 others after that at the Saudi gov which hasn't flown in years and is most likely retired, and a Russian cargo converted bird (forgot the company)

BAe146/Avro in passenger service Yet another still with a couple of frames at Mahan, but largely restricted to cargo elsewhere.

F70/100 are lingering in Australia, but I wonder for how long with the ERJs coming in? Of course there are also a much smaller number lingering in Iran

quite a bit: A310, A340, 737 classic, 777 non ER, Bae146, fokker, MDs beside the MD11

burnsie28 wrote:

Erau82 wrote:

The 767-400 is an interesting model. Only 48 frames were built for Continental and Delta with the split at 21 and 28, but I can't remember who got which sets of frames. The landing gear was unique and spares were an issue when changing out a set to be overhauled.

Actually, only 37 frames were built for commercial service with 1 additional for military test bed.

Delta received 21 aircraft and Continental the other 16 (with zero unfilled orders). The 1 military plane was sold as a VIP transport and is operated by Bahrain Royal Flight.

That's very interesting, thanks for sharing. I had no idea BRF had a 764. I went out of my way to fly the 764 and 753 over the last two years. They are both intriguing.

While not currently hard to find, the 717 will likely be gone within a few years. Delta, Hawaiian and Qantas all operate the type, but Delta is retiring by 2024 (?) and with it will take about two thirds of the remaining examples. Hawaiian seem likely to be the final operator.

There aren't many A318 still flying (Air France and Tarom, I think, and Tarom has theirs up for sale).

StlHsvSfoSan wrote:

There aren't many A318 still flying (Air France and Tarom, I think, and Tarom has theirs up for sale).

their days a AF are numbered too, so yes definitely a candidate for extinction

Yep. So pleased I got my one (just one) flight on an A318.

I’ll almost certainly never get another.

The MD-80 series are another contender, lately DAT retired their last MD-83 which marked the end of scheduled MD-80 service in Europe. Only European Air Charter still has some MD-82s but like the name says they're for charters only.

There are not many MD-80s left, according to what I could find you have to go to either Mexico or Iran to fly one although there might be the odd one around in the US as well.

May I humbly mention the Dornier 328JETs? I don't know of many operators right now. Off the top of the head, I think theres some UN plane(s) flying into Africa, the Taos Air planes, and some in Europe but I don't know of many others.

The Airbus A-340 is in danger of extinction; I saw a Swissair one come out of Heathrow a couple of days ago and it struck me how few there are around these days. One of the paradoxes is that it's most likely that the last ones to be in regular passenger service will be of the 300 series -- Swissair and Lufthansa -- rather than the more modern 500 and 600 series. There are a couple of 600 series in regular freight service bringing in medical supplies, usually into Hurn, which can be seen flying over London.

A380. Other than emirates probably won't be around in 5 years.

Boeing757100 wrote:

May I humbly mention the Dornier 328JETs? I don't know of many operators right now. Off the top of the head, I think theres some UN plane(s) flying into Africa, the Taos Air planes, and some in Europe but I don't know of many others.

There were a couple of DO328 jets operated as corporate shuttles because it met their very specific needs, mostly field performance.

Boeing757100 wrote:

May I humbly mention the Dornier 328JETs? I don't know of many operators right now. Off the top of the head, I think theres some UN plane(s) flying into Africa, the Taos Air planes, and some in Europe but I don't know of many others.

Key Lime Air/Denver Air Connection operates a handful out of DEN - for example, looks like they're operating Telluride daily on the 328JET.

Antonov 148 / Antonov 158. First flight was 2004, but there's not many of them around, never mind in operation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-148#Operators

767-200 passenger. Eastern Airlines had been operating some flights from JFK and Boston to South & Central America. Not sure how often they actually use the 762 at this time.

Lots of talk about the 737 Classic, but only a handful of 737-600 are still flying as well. The 737-900 non-ER is also rare in the grand scheme of things.

N965UW wrote:

Lots of talk about the 737 Classic, but only a handful of 737-600 are still flying as well. The 737-900 non-ER is also rare in the grand scheme of things.

According to Wikipedia pretty much the only airline where you have a chance of flying on a 736 is Air Algerie which has five of them. I flew on a SAS one from Trondheim to Bergen in 2018.

Looks like passenger A300s and A310s are very few and far between. Still a fair amount of A340s around, and I'd like to get on one at some point since it's becoming increasingly rare for 4 engine planes to fly long-haul passenger flights.

Ok, I'm skeptical about posting this on here. Feel free to roast me and harass me in the PMs rather than in-thread...
I regret this one heavily, but I have to say it.

Ok here goes, the PAX 757

Wait wait wait wait. Hear me out. I'm NOT talking about the 757s as a whole. The freight boys'll be with us for years to come. The list of operators for the 757F is endless and none are really gonna retire them now. But, take one look at the guys who operate the 757 pax.

- Azerbaijan air (2)
- Azur Air (10)
- Azur Ukraine (3)
- Cabo Verde (3)
- Condor (13)
- Delta (127)
- Icelandair (23)
- Jet2 (8)
- Sunday Airlines (4)
- Taban Air (1)
- Tajik Air (1)
- Titan (2)
- Turkmenistan airlines (3)
- United (61)
- Uzbekistan airlines (2)


Seems like a lot, but once you take out Delta, United, and Icelandair, its really not that many. Besides, Uzbekistan is retiring theirs next year, Titan will remove them sooner or later, Taban's is stored I believe, so they shouldn't even count. Jet2 is slowly removing them.

And looking at the rest (Azerbaijan, Sunday, Turkmenistan, Azur Air, etc.) there's just so few frames in the fleet that sooner or later the fuel consumption is probably going to be too expensive and maintenance also.

Not even mentioning the fact that Icelandair, United, and maybe Condor are gonna slowly phase them out throughout the decade. Highly unlikely they'll make it to 2030. And who knows how long the leases with Cabo Verde will last.

So using this judgement, here are the possible operators to around the late 2020s. (* means possibly yes or no)
- Delta (duh)
- Azur Air*
- Azur Air Ukraine (their 753s are relatively newly acquired)
- Condor*
- Northern Pacific (Alaskan startup)
- United** (very very unsure maybe the 753s will stick around the tiniest bit longer)
(and perhaps 5-10 samples of other not well known pax airlines may fly on)

Is especially sad comparing to how in the 2000s-2010s so many big names operated it (British Airways, American, Iberia, TUI, El Al, ECAir, La Compagnie, Ghana International, Finnair, and virtually all the big players in China.) and now hardly anyone is but freight.

Sure, the DL birds and the freight birds will live on for a while but just wanted to bring this up.

But may the 757 fly as long as possible.

FLALEFTY wrote:

Here is the last semi-active MD-90 that was recently transferred from DL to Boeing. I'm not too sure what Boeing is doing with it:

https://www.planespotters.net/airframe/ ... ing/el05ve

As for active Airbus A318s, 19 have executive/VIP users (A318ACJ-Elite), 4 are active with Tarom, and Air France has 10 active and 4 parked. Starting last August, Air France has been retiring the A318s at a rate of 1 per month as new A223s get delivered to replace them.

https://www.planespotters.net/productio ... ort=status

The B736 active numbers are dwindling. EG&G "Janet Airlines" has 6 active B736s. Air Algerie has 4 active and 1 parked. Tunisair has 2 active and 1 parked.

https://www.planespotters.net/productio ... ort=status

The MD-90 is already extinct. Last was taken out of service in June 2020.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Antonov 148 / Antonov 158. First flight was 2004, but there's not many of them around, never mind in operation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-148#Operators

Yeah, it was supposed to become a BAE-146 successor but never came to fruition. I guess the name Antonov didn't rise much confidence with airlines, even though they build high quality aircraft nowadays. That has been different in the past which puts a burden on the name.