While the purchases put Boeing on the hook for finding new operators, it helps nurture demand for the newer 747-8—among a class of fuel-thirsty four-engine aircraft that airlines frown upon these days. New sales are pivotal to keeping 747 assembly lines humming as Boeing slows output 13 percent to 1.75 planes a month and stashes some unsold 747-8s in desert storage. “It unloads a problem [from airlines] to Boeing,” says Douglas Kelly, senior vice president for asset valuation at aviation consultant Avitas. “It’s just like trading in your car.”
While Boeing declined to comment on specific customers or aircraft sales, the Ascend data show that this year’s sellers of 747-400s to the world’s largest planemaker are all buyers of the 747-8 family, which includes both passenger and all-freight versions. The buyers are Korean Air Lines (003490:KS) and Cathay Pacific Airways (CPCAY), as well as Cathay’s Dragonair unit and its cargo joint venture with Air China (AIRYY).
Production of the 747-400 ended in 2009. New features on the 747-8 include improved engines and an elongated version of the fuselage hump that gives the plane its distinctive profile. It entered commercial service in 2011, two years late, after Boeing diverted engineers to the delayed 787 Dreamliner.
Potential buyers for the 747-8 are dwindling as cargo companies increasingly ship freight by rail or in the bellies of passenger versions of large twin-engine jets such as Boeing’s 777s, favored for their fuel economy and low maintenance costs, says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation consultant.