The era of the Boeing 747, also known colloquially as the "Jumbo Jet", is slowly but surely coming to an end. The US manufacturer only has five customer orders to process. These are to be handed over to the customers this year.

After that, Boeing has no more orders in the backlog for this machine type. The consequence of this is that after more than half a century, production is stopped – at least for the time being. The last copy will be delivered to a customer very soon.

The B747 has been the backbone of many airlines' long-haul fleets for many years. The pattern has been continuously developed since the first flight, which was a long time ago. The current Boeing 747-8 variant was never particularly in demand as a passenger variant, but the aircraft sold quite well as a freighter.

In the meantime, two engines have prevailed on the long haul. In view of rising fuel costs, cargo airlines are now increasingly using aircraft that consume less fuel. Boeing has been feeling the effects of this for several years, because the Boeing 747-8 has only been sold sluggishly. Production of the competing model, the Airbus A380, has already been discontinued.

The US aircraft manufacturer originally assumed that at least 300 B747-8s would be sold. Expectations have not been met, as only 48 passenger variants and 102 freighters have been sold so far. The model has not been available as a PAX aircraft for a long time, but it is available as a cargo aircraft.

According to Boeing, the last copy will be handed over to Atlas Air in October 2022. This carrier will take over four of the last five B747-8Fs. One unit went to competitor UPS. Four copies have been delivered to them in the last few weeks, so that now only the orders from Atlas Air have to be processed.

Unless new orders can be landed, production of the Boeing 747-8 will be discontinued. Whether a new edition could follow at a later date is currently still completely open. However, it is considered unlikely that Airbus will ever reactivate A380 production or Boeing B747-8 production.