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#939848 by SlimpyJones
24 Nov 2017, 16:35
I believe the first A35K is due to arrive in early 2019 and there are 12 on order. It will be quite a few years still before the final 747 leaves the fleet I imagine.
#939851 by Kraken
24 Nov 2017, 19:45
If I am correct, Virgin still have 8 747's in operation. Of these, 5 are leased & 3 are owned.

The leased 5 (a/k/a the "Alitalia 5") all entered service in 2001 & I think they were on 10yr leases, renewed in 2011 for a further 10yrs - so 5 of the fleet (VROY, VROM, VGAL, VLIP & VROS) are likely to be up to leave the fleet throughout 2021 (the aircraft were delivered a month or two apart, so it could be one plane leaving every other month). Do factor in end of lease maintenance & repainting to white - this takes time and has to be done before the lease is up, so they may go earlier.

The other 3 747's (VXLG, VBIG & VAST) are all older than the aircraft above & were delivered between 1996 & 1998. These aircraft are owned by Virgin Atlantic & must be pretty much depreciated on the books by now. I would hazard a guess that these 3 will be the last to leave the fleet. As long as they are properly maintained, which they are, they have a good few years left in them yet. (Remember, the average age of BA's 747-400 fleet is 21.2 years, so even Virgins oldest 747 is younger then a lot of BA's).

The above is all semi-informed speculation, but seems to fit in with information available in the public domain. The A350-1000 deliveries start in 2019 with the first frames going to LHR. So sometime in 2020-2021 frames start to arrive and go to the LGW leisure fleet, which fits in with starting to retire 747's that are coming off lease. Of course, the lessor may be amenable to a short-term extension to the lease (i.e. 1 or 2 years) if this suits Virgin, as demand for 20yr old 747's is not going to be high with so many airlines already having retired the type (i.e. there are plenty already parked in the desert).
#939878 by VS075
26 Nov 2017, 18:15
Probably a tad early to be thinking about it yet, but considering the 747 was the aircraft VS started off with back in 1984, what are the chances of VS doing something special to commemorate their departure from the fleet?

For example, 3 years ago I was on the last commercial MD-11 service operated by KLM from Montreal to Amsterdam and they made a thing out of the final flight with signed certificates from the pilots, cakes and champagne (even in Economy!), water cannon salute upon landing at AMS and cockpit visits on arrival. They also did some pleasure flight for enthusiasts a few weeks later before they went off for scrap. KLM also made a bit of a thing again recently when they withdrew their final Fokker 70’s.
#939890 by Lucydog
27 Nov 2017, 15:35
Bitterly disappointed to hear that LHR will get all the new 350 aircraft, they also had the 787 new aircraft . So Manchester, glasgow, Gatwick keep the old aircraft and our money is not good enough to warrant us any chance to try them out. Yes I know the saying is the Orlando route is to busy so will use all the space on the smaller aircraft, well when the old 747 stock have gone we will have to use them then, so why not sometimes now. school holidays is busy, but I know and so do others there are many times through the year when those flights run half full.
#939891 by SlimpyJones
27 Nov 2017, 16:08
Lucydog wrote:Bitterly disappointed to hear that LHR will get all the new 350 aircraft, they also had the 787 new aircraft . So Manchester, glasgow, Gatwick keep the old aircraft and our money is not good enough to warrant us any chance to try them out.


Not sure where you have heard that, but that's not true. In time the A350s will replace the A346s and 747s.

Our understanding is that there will be a more business-heavy configuration for LHR, and a more economy-heavy version for the LGW/MAN/GLA/BFS leisure routes. As for which routes get them first, nobody knows yet.
#939910 by VS075
28 Nov 2017, 13:48
Lucydog wrote:Bitterly disappointed to hear that LHR will get all the new 350 aircraft, they also had the 787 new aircraft . So Manchester, glasgow, Gatwick keep the old aircraft and our money is not good enough to warrant us any chance to try them out. Yes I know the saying is the Orlando route is to busy so will use all the space on the smaller aircraft, well when the old 747 stock have gone we will have to use them then, so why not sometimes now. school holidays is busy, but I know and so do others there are many times through the year when those flights run half full.


The plan is for the first few A350's to be delivered to LHR in a premium-heavy config, with the remaining (i.e. the majority) being in a more higher density config for the leisure routes.

It makes sense to deploy the A350's at LHR first as they will allow the A340-600's to be withdrawn. Another factor besides capacity is that the 747's were all refitted around 5 years ago and the interior's are still in decent nick, plus 3 of them are owned by VS whereas the rest are leased.

As for the 787's, they were used to replace the A340-300's, some -600's and the LHR-based 747's (ok 4 of them, with G-VBIG being retained as it's an owned aircraft). My view is that the 787's are too small to adequately cover the leisure routes, even the -10 aircraft which some believed VS would go for before the order for A350-1000's, and whatever leisure routes they don't use 747's on currently are more than adequately served by the A330's which are no more than 6 years old, don't need the capabilities/range of the 787's and now have the original UCS seats instead of the Dream Suites.

To be honest, purely from an enthusiast's perspective alone, I'd say enjoy the 747's while you still can!
#939914 by cheesebag
28 Nov 2017, 14:47
Love the post 75 but I can't say the interiors are in decent nick... BIG was falling apart in places upstairs earlier this year and Lips wasn't much better!
#939933 by getinjonathan
29 Nov 2017, 09:20
VS075 wrote:
Lucydog wrote:Bitterly disappointed to hear that LHR will get all the new 350 aircraft, they also had the 787 new aircraft . So Manchester, glasgow, Gatwick keep the old aircraft and our money is not good enough to warrant us any chance to try them out. Yes I know the saying is the Orlando route is to busy so will use all the space on the smaller aircraft, well when the old 747 stock have gone we will have to use them then, so why not sometimes now. school holidays is busy, but I know and so do others there are many times through the year when those flights run half full.


The plan is for the first few A350's to be delivered to LHR in a premium-heavy config, with the remaining (i.e. the majority) being in a more higher density config for the leisure routes.

It makes sense to deploy the A350's at LHR first as they will allow the A340-600's to be withdrawn. Another factor besides capacity is that the 747's were all refitted around 5 years ago and the interior's are still in decent nick, plus 3 of them are owned by VS whereas the rest are leased.

As for the 787's, they were used to replace the A340-300's, some -600's and the LHR-based 747's (ok 4 of them, with G-VBIG being retained as it's an owned aircraft). My view is that the 787's are too small to adequately cover the leisure routes, even the -10 aircraft which some believed VS would go for before the order for A350-1000's, and whatever leisure routes they don't use 747's on currently are more than adequately served by the A330's which are no more than 6 years old, don't need the capabilities/range of the 787's and now have the original UCS seats instead of the Dream Suites.

To be honest, purely from an enthusiast's perspective alone, I'd say enjoy the 747's while you still can!


LHR will receive the business version of the aircraft first which will seat 360 PAX and will operate 'key US routes', one can assume that will include NYC. The leisure config will seat 410 PAX.
#939945 by Lucydog
30 Nov 2017, 12:13
I also think the 747 aircraft are looking a bit tatty, there were 5 of us flying man/las and one or the other of us had something that was not working or broken. I have used upper but there again out of the 3 of us one of us could not recline the seat as was broken so on a night flight useless. Yes we were offerd points but what good are these after paying for upper with the reclining seats. When facing a 10hr flight I wanted to recline as a treat for my birthday. I understand it can be unavoidable but it still dissapointes. We normally only fly PE.
This was why I thought it was time the rest of the airports VA service should get spoiled sometimes. I really want to try the new aircraft but nipping down to LGW/LHR is a costly option. I also think PE on the 330 are more comfortable than the 747 up/down stairs.
VA will get left behind with the holiday crowd if they don't up there game and spread the aircraft around more. Just my thoughts.
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