Boeing cancelled the last of three orders for the passenger-carrying 747-8I that once belonged to defunct Russian carrier Transaero on 13 July.
The update on the company’s orders and deliveries web site cleanses the 747 backlog of the last of the programme’s phantom orders, but doesn’t change the white tail status of the two Transaero 747-8Is that Boeing has already built.
Transaero ordered a total four 747-8Is in December 2013, but collapsed in bankruptcy two years later. Aeroflot absorbed most of Transaero’s existing fleet, but declined to pick up Transaero’s 747-8I orders worth $1.5 billion at list prices.
In Everett, Washington, the first two of Transaero’s 747-8Is were already well along in the assembly line by the time the Russian carrier declared bankruptcy.
No other customers emerged to buy the aircraft, so both aircraft have been parked in storage in Vacaville, California, since 2016.
Boeing cancelled one of Transaero’s orders for the 747-8I last March. The last three orders from Transaero appeared as “cancelled” on the weekly update released on 13 July.
The 747-8 backlog, meanwhile, dwindles to 17 aircraft, with deliveries of the last 747-8I to Korean Air and the first of 14 747-8 Freighters ordered by UPS considered imminent, according to Flight Fleet Analyzer.
Last September, Boeing slowed the 747-8 assembly line to a crawl, producing one new aircraft every two months. Boeing can keep the production system running for 2.5 years without new orders or any further cancellations.
The US Air Force plans to buy at least two 747-8Is to replace two aging 747-200s used as VC-25 presidential transports, but entry into service is not scheduled until fiscal year 2024.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
