Iran Air
Iran Air operated more than twenty Boeing 747s across the -100, -200, 747SP and a leased -400 between 1974 and 2018, its sanctions-extended SPs flying the world's last commercial 747SP passenger services.
Iran Air is a case study in how long a 747 can serve when it cannot be replaced. Sanctions kept the airline’s classics flying decades past the point at which other operators had retired theirs, and the result was a fleet that outlasted the type almost everywhere else.
The 747SP and the Tehran nonstop
Iran Air was an early customer of the 747SP, the shortened, long-range variant built to fly routes no other airliner could reach. For the airline that meant a nonstop Tehran–New York service, which the SP flew in a little over twelve hours — a scheduled long-distance record at the time, and the reason the airline was prepared to trade passenger capacity for range.
A mixed classic fleet
The airline operated 747-100Bs, 747-200 freighters and Combis, and the SPs, using the classics heavily on Hajj charters as well as scheduled routes. Because new aircraft were unavailable, the fleet was kept alive with careful maintenance and cannibalisation. One aircraft, EP-IAM, retired in January 2014, was the last passenger 747-100 still flying anywhere.
The last passenger 747SP
The 747SP’s long goodbye was Iran Air’s. EP-IAC flew the world’s final commercial 747SP passenger services, to Beijing, Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur, before retirement in 2016 and a last repositioning flight in May 2018. The airline’s four SPs were subsequently scrapped at Tehran Mehrabad.
Iran Air also briefly leased a 747-400 for Hajj flights in 2017 — the newest 747 the airline ever flew, decades after the type’s classic era.
Related
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the primary and institutional references below.
- Iran Air — Wikipedia
- The remarkable story of Iran Air and its Boeing 747s — Key.Aero
- Last commercially operating Boeing 747SP flown to retirement in Iran — AirlineGeeks
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