What caused the demise of Boeing’s 747 airliner?

The death of a queen is a time for reflection. So it was when the last 747 jumbo jet—the “Queen of the Skies” to legions of fans—rolled off Boeing’s production line in Washington state on December 6th. Her demise has been slow and a little undignified. The last plane to be sold as passenger transport was in 2017, to Korean Air Lines. After that she was used  only for cargo, and not many operators wanted her for that. Only 30 747s were ordered over the past five years. Even so, for those who associate the bumpy-headed bird with aviation’s heyday, it feels like the end of an era.

PanAm flew the first commercial 747 route in 1970, between JFK airport in New York and London Heathrow. Strict regulation of the industry at the time restricted which routes airlines could fly. Ticket prices were also controlled. Those first jumbos typically carried 366 passengers, compared with around 200 on the Boeing 707s that flew the transatlantic route in the 1960s. That gave carriers a better chance of turning a profit in the face of these constraints. But their size would also prove to be a burden. When the oil shock struck in the mid-1970s, the gas-guzzling, four-engined beasts were a factor in airlines’ crippling losses—not least because the recession meant it was more difficult to fill its seats.