From today's Times biz section:
Click here for the rest, which features some great old photos, including a shot of the "coach lounge" on an AA 747.Far From Extinct
By LESLIE WAYNE
Published: December 7, 2006
After air traffic fell off sharply following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Boeing 747, the hump-backed giant of the skies, appeared to have run out of lives.
The plane — the first of which was flown in 1970 by Pan Am after being christened by the first lady, Pat Nixon — was no longer in strong demand, as the world seemed to be moving to smaller, more fuel-efficient planes. And the new double-decker A380 from Airbus, Boeing’s archrival, had captured the industry’s imagination, even though it was years from being built.
The 747 “was on a heart-lung machine,” Howard Rubel, an aviation analyst at Jefferies & Company, recalled. “It looked like Boeing was about to shut it down.”
But a funny thing happened to the 747 on the way to the graveyard: it found a new tailwind, and a strong one at that.
Demand is growing for the new 747-8 Intercontinental, which was introduced a year ago. Boeing now has 73 orders for the plane after its latest lift yesterday from Lufthansa, the big German carrier, which announced it was placing a $5.5 billion order for 20 747-8s, and took options to buy 20 more.
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