Delta to retire 747's on Jan 31st, 2018

This is awful. The queen will be missed. With United doing the same, there will not be any US carriers left flying the 747. Damn I wish the -8i was more popular :(

Its is going to be sad seeing these big birds. We get 4 of these birds here at DTW.

So sad to see the 747s disappear from US passenger fleets. It truly was the aircraft that opened up the world to the average person. I have so many memories of trips that started and ended on 747s, especially back with TWA. But it's hard to justify the economics of 4 engines vs. 2 on the younger birds. Luckily for us, we visit the UK every couple of years and British Airways is keeping their -400 fleet going for a few more years with continual upgrades to the interiors.

good bye "big bird"...time marches on..i remember flying on a dl747 once and also on united..my carrier used dc 10's, also now "defunct" except for fedex..its a new era...

I can remember a few years ago, when Delta and Northwest merged, I went out on a cold Minnesota winter day to watch the first NW 744 to be repainted in DL paint arrive at KMSP. I'm very sad to see them go; it was a highlight of the day watching them depart for Tokyo (and that flight is now on a 777).

Well, there are new queens. The 777X or right now the 787 and 350.
More silent and efficient, larger windows and for the real large capacity there is the 380. The 747 was a mice plane, but its design is 50 years old.

What about buying the new 747's ??

This BizJournal piece was published Aug 4, 2016.