US manufacturer Boeing shot to long-haul prominence in the 1970s when its iconic 747 family took
to the skies. It changed long-haul travel forever. The jumbo was, and remains, an immensely
popular aircraft, but Boeing found that it needed to complement it with a smaller widebody
design. This eventually saw the 767 come into existence, but this aircraft is now becoming
increasingly rare. Want to know about it?
Well, stay tuned to the video And watch the video till the end.
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Hit the like button to show your support. And in today's video, we are going to discuss “Boeing
767 Is A BIG PROBLEM FOR Airlines.” So without any further ado, Let's begin.
The 767 has been an important aircraft for Boeing. Starting out in the early 1980s, it
opened up transatlantic routes to twin-engines, a major development at the time. While it
is not the best-selling widebody (the 777 takes that), it has had a long life, moving
through several variants. More efficient aircraft have now taken over, but it remains in production
and popular for cargo and logistics use. Air Canada recently retired the Boeing 767-300ER
passenger aircraft that had the most operating hours in the world.
With 211 seats in total, the aircraft FIN682 has flown hundreds of thousands of passengers
throughout its 31 years in the air, first being delivered to the company in May 1988.
It has completed more than 139,000 hours of flight. The 767 range were first introduced
in 1981 as a mid-large, mid-long-range jet airliner by Boeing, the first of their wide-body
twinjet. Its operating range is up to 6,385 nautical miles depending on which variant.
Air Canada’s range of B767 aircraft, of which it only has five remaining, normally
fly domestic and international flights out of Toronto International Airport as well as
from Ottawa to London. Moreover, Delta Air Lines has a problem, and it is called the
Boeing 767. There is nothing wrong with the planes, but, instead, Delta has a problem
when it comes to retiring the 767s. While it has set out plans to wave goodbye
to the jets over the next few years, it does not have a clear replacement for the aircraft
yet. The Boeing 767 still has a few good years in front of it. But after 2028, its future
becomes murky. For one thing, Boeing will finish building the 179 KC-46 tankers ordered
by the U.S. Air Force around then. Perhaps the Air Force will order more or big international
orders will finally start rolling in but there are no guarantees.
Meanwhile, the 767-300F does not comply with new emissions standards promulgated by the
International Civil Aviation Organization. Barring a change in the rules, that means
production must cease before Jan. 1, 2028. Unless Boeing gets a lot more KC-46 orders,
it will likely sunset 767 production by 2030. Even in a best-case scenario, it would probably
need to slow production compared to the current rate of three per month. But no matter what
the future holds, the Boeing 767 will go down in history as a highly successful model with
remarkable longevity. More recently, though, Boeing’s Randy Tinseth explained that there’s
little to no chance of the 767 being revived. “Bringing back the 767 passenger airplane,
I just don’t see it,” said Randy Tinseth, vice-president of marketing at Boeing Commercial
Airplanes, when speaking to reporters at an aviation conference in California earlier
this month. Originally introduced September 1981, the 767 is a mid- and long-range twin-engine
airliner manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In 1982, United Airlines became
the first airline to use the 767 in its fleet. And throughout the 1990s, the 767 was ranked
as the most popular airliner for transatlantic flights connecting North America to Europe.
Since then, the 767 has continued to dominate the skies, with Boeing producing more than
1,100 units. Boeing stopping producing the passenger versions of the 767, however, once
its successor, the 787, Dreamliner, was launched in 2011. Boeing still produces non-passenger
versions of the 767, but those units are sold to commercial airlines. So, why doesn’t
Boeing want to resume production of the 767? While the company didn’t provide a specific
reason, it’s safe to assume that it’s currently working on its next-generation MMA,
which is expected to launch around 2025. Although details of Boeing’s upcoming MMA
remain sparse, reports indicate that it will seat between 220 and 270 passengers, with
a range of approximately 5,000 nautical miles. To put those numbers into perspective, the
767 has a seating capacity of 181 and 375 passengers and a range of approximately 3,850
to 6,385 nautical miles. While it’s still many years away from being launched, several
major airlines have already expressed interest in purchasing Boeing’s new MMA, including
American Airlines, Delta Air Linea and United Airlines.
Of course, Airbus will likely prove to be a direct competitor of Boeing’s new MMA
by launching its A321LR later this year. The bottom line is that the Boeing 767 isn’t
returning to the skies. With Boeing focusing its resources towards its next-generation
MMA, the chances of it returning are slim to none. In recent years, the 767 has experienced
something of a decline. Of course, a factor in this is the aircraft's age, with the original
767-200 having first flown nearly four decades ago.
However, in another sense, it has become a victim of its own success. But how, exactly?
Specifically, we have to look at the program's development in the late 1980s. The success
of the stretched-fuselage 767-300 and -300ER variants caused Boeing to consider producing
a larger version. This would have had a wider fuselage than the original 767's existing
seven-abreast 2-3-2 setup, and initially designated as the 767-X.
It first proposed this in 1986, but the concept garnered minimal interest among prospective
customers. Two years later, Boeing reworked the 767-X design into a new twinjet family
that would later become the popular 777 series. This design first flew in 1994, and United
introduced it commercially a year later. As such, the 767's decline can partially be seen
as a consequence of its own success in that it led to the development of the 777.
The 767-X remained a 767 family member, the series may have experienced greater sales
and a slower decline. More recently, Boeing has also launched another twin-engine widebody
in the form of the 787 'Dreamliner' family. This nine-abreast design is smaller than the
777 series, putting it on a par, capacity-wise, with some of the 767's larger variants.
Since its introduction in 2011, many airlines have ordered the 787 as a replacement for
the 767 due to its greater range and efficiency, further contributing to its fall in the last
decade. In total, Boeing has delivered 1,215 767 aircraft (based on data from Boeing).
It remains in production, with 93 outstanding orders for freighter (767-300F) and tanker
aircraft (767-2C). As of July 2021, 697 of these remain in active use. The largest operators
are the cargo airlines, with FedEx Express operating 104 aircraft and UPS Airlines 78.
There is continued interest in cargo aircraft both with these new orders and second-hand
purchases and conversions. Amazon, for example, has taken on several 767s from Delta and WestJet.
Delta Air Lines is the largest passenger operator still, with 69 767s (48 767-300ER and 21 767-400ER
aircraft). 2020 quickly dashed all of Delta's plans, and the airline quickly turned to cut
its costs and streamline its fleet. Some of the casualties in the wave of retirements
were the Boeing 767-300ERs. Seven Boeing 767-300ERs were retired by the end of the second quarter
of 2020. Additional retirements were expected, but then, in September, Delta went deeper
into the Boeing 767 retirements. Delta announced it would retire all of its remaining 49 Boeing
767-300ERs by the end of the year in 2025, giving the airline about five years before
retiring all of its 767-300ERs. Further retirements followed, and Delta was
left with only 34 Boeing 767-300ERs in its fleet at the end of 2020 with an average fleet
age of 23.4 years old. Closely following is United Airlines with 54 aircraft (38 767-300ER
and 16 767-400ER). American Airlines retired its fleet in 2020 amidst a pandemic-induced
move to simplification. Outside the US, Japanese airlines are the largest remaining operators.
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