A brand-new Boeing 747 took off from Basel-Mulhouse Airport for the last time last year. The plane, which cost 328 million euros, has had its day.
The Boeing 747 remained at Basel-Mulhouse Airport for nearly ten years. There the machine must be upgraded to a Saudi king. But it was never sold, instead the Boeing 747 was taken to the “aircraft graveyard” in Arizona, USA.
The aircraft is called the “Boeing Business Jet” – a heavily modified version of a Boeing jet intended for government and corporate customers. With a range of over 16,000 kilometers and a cabin area of around 465 square meters, the “Boeing Business Jet” is larger than any other business jet.
plane to prince
“It’s not transparent who exactly is buying it, but it’s a very, very large private aircraft and the only operators or buyers are usually governments and royal families,” Connor Diver, senior analyst at aeronautical analytics firm Cirium, told CNN.
The aircraft first flew in May 2012 for testing purposes and was officially delivered in June 2012. Recorded data shows that a few more flights may have followed via San Bernardino and San Antonio, Texas. In December 2012, the plane finally arrived in Basel.
No new buyers found
Connor Diver suspects that he came to Switzerland to be equipped. The example in question was intended for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. However, he died in 2011. The jet was supposed to be delivered just a few months later.
In 2017, sellers wanted to get rid of the plane at a massive discount. The aircraft can be purchased in “ready to convert” condition for the equivalent of €89 million – at an original list price of around €328 million. But a buyer was not found.
Last arrival at the “Airport Cemetery”
Boeing ended up buying back the plane in 2022. The plane flew to Arizona on April 15, 2022, adding an additional 10 hours to its time in the air, about a quarter of its total flight time.
After only around 30 hours in the air, the Boeing 747 was dismantled into its individual parts at Pinal Airpark. “I’ve seen pictures of it and it’s been dismantled, the engines have been removed,” Diver told CNN. The engines were practically new and one of them cost around 18.7 million euros.
It is not clear if the aircraft was completely scrapped or if the individual parts are being stored in order to be able to reuse them if necessary. According to CNN, the useful life of a Boeing is usually between 25 and 30 years.
Navigation account 20 minutes, rcp time 02/16/2023, 21:54 | Act: 02/16/2023, 21:54