"Old 747"

Hi Folks, something I've noticed in one or two comments/TR's on this site is that people often use the phrase "Old 747" when talking about Virgin's 747 fleet.

I thought that was a bit of a misnomer, so checked out Google. Found http://www.airfleets.net which shows backs up my suspicion:

- the average VS 747 is 11.5 years old, compared to 7.9 on the A340 fleet. Of the 12 747's in operation, 6 were delivered less than 9 years ago, so are still very young. Even the oldest is 16 years old, so still has a lot of life left!

- compare this to BA's (admittedly much larger) 747 fleet. Average age 15.9 years. Oldest aircraft is of 1989 vintage (21 years old), and many of the fleet were delivered around the same time as Virgin's oldest 747. The youngest BA 747 was only received in '99, compared to '03 for Virgin.

So, after a bit of a plane-spotterish browse through the internet I guess this shows that people do wrongly perceive the 747's to be old, and actually they're a pretty young bunch! Wonder why people regard them as old? Perhaps the older IFE on some aircaft?

[mitchja]

I would say people perceive LGW/MAN VS 747's as 'old' based purely on the IFE.

Until VS do something about their IFE on these A/C, this perception is unlikely to change.

[Neil]

I think James has it spot on. Due to the older style PE seats and IFE, people who aren't so 'geeky', wrongly presume that the LGW 747 a/c are old, something which is totally incorrect, especially as the LHR ones are quite a bit older.

Yeah apart from new seat covers and the UCS the Gatwick based 747's havent been refurbished since they were delivered i dont think, whereas the LHR fleet have been refurbished in the last few years for the UCS, new PE and having Vport fitted.

And having seen the state of the paintowrk on VTOP (1997) next to VHOT (1994) a couple of months ago im really not suprised people think they are older.

Everything said above is true, having recently returned from LAS to LGW, I did hear a number of people commenting on both outbound and return at how "scrappy" the VS fleet is.

The biggest trouble is, people look on the Virgin website, read all about the new seats etc and then board the LGW planes to find everything wornout and not as shown on the website. The IFE is passable and of course nowhere near as good as V-Port, but it is the flickering and nonworking screens that annoy people and give that old impression.

Having said that, the refurb next year will be very welcome and I am sure will change peoples opinion / perception y)

With many airlines buying planes with new generation interiors, it's hard not to board a 747 and think it looks old. When you board the 777 with nightsky, deep fill easy access overhead bins and mood lighting it's hard not to feel like stepping back when you then board a 747 which has only had seat upgrades.

I do agree that the seating and IFE always make an impression too. The EK330s have even been described as dangerous when people step in and see the old seats, especially in business/first. There is no telling them that their aircraft is maximum 11years old and could be in fact 6 years old - spring chickens.

This hasn't been helped by lots of people travelling on easyJet and Ryanair which have pretty new hardware at the low cost point, people wonder why a full service airlines can't match it.