Taiwan’s China Airlines targets 1Q21 pax B747 phase-out

China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan) will retire its four remaining passenger-configured B747-400s during the first quarter of 2021. According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the privately-owned carrier has enlisted an aircraft asset management firm to oversee the sale of B-18210 (msn 33734), B-18211 (msn 33735), B-18212 (msn 33736), and B-18215 (msn 33737). The quartet currently averages 15.8 years of age and is owned by the airline itself, which has been their sole operator since delivery. In terms of specifications, the ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows they are all powered by General Electric CF6-80C2B1Fs and collectively feature between 61,600 and 63,900 hours with between 12,840 and 13,030 cycles. Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows the B747s last operated scheduled flights around February/March this year, after which they were parked with only intermittent charters and test flights having been conducted since then. China Airlines’ widebody fleet also includes twenty-three A330-300s, fourteen A350-900s, and ten B777-300(ER)s. Once gone, China Airlines will continue to operate the B747 albeit as a freighter. Although it had planned to start disposing of its eighteen B747-400(FSCD)s earlier in the year, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent surge in demand for air cargo capacity forced it to reconsider its plans. As such, the entire fleet is currently in service. China Airlines is expecting its first of six B777-200Fs on order from Boeing (BOE, Chicago O’Hare) to deliver later this quarter.