SA Airways grounds costly Boeing 747 jets

[TallDutch]

Public enterprises minister Alec Erwin says South African Airways (SAA) has grounded its fleet of Boeing 747 jets because the cost of running them far outweighs the economic benefits.

He was responding to a question in Parliament. Erwin says the decision to ground the jumbo-jets is in line with SAA's restructuring and cost reduction strategy.

http://www.sabcnews.com/economy/busines ... 51,00.html

[cancidas]

haha, they've got a pitcure of a 737 tail. could this mean theyre grounding thier 737 fleet? do they have any non -400 747s?

[MarkLawrence]

No - all the non -400's have been retired -200's, -300's and -SP's - if I remember right, the last -300 to be retired was ZA-SAJ (below). It's a real pity about the -400's as they were the work horse of the international fleet for many years and were a pleasure to fly on. Over the years, I've done many an international on that fleet and always enjoyed it. I have a friend who is a captain on the A340-200's now that would far prefer to go back to the -400's than anything else.

[jetphotos:2ebb8]http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=5928071&nseq=1[/jetphotos:2ebb8]