The oldest passenger planes still in the sky
Would you feel uneasy flying on a plane built in 1974? Harold Wilson was enjoying/enduring his second stint in Number 10, the band Queen was in its pomp, man’s first small step on the surface of the moon was still relatively fresh in the memory. And 1974 was also the year that a Boeing 737-200, with the serial number 20836, made its maiden flight for Transavia Airlines, based in the Netherlands.
Forty-eight years on, Wilson has shuffled off this mortal coil, as has Freddie, while Nasa is hoping to start a colony on Mars. But 20836 is still going strong in the services of Nolinor Aviation, a Canadian charter airline, under the registration C-GNLK.
Its journey from Holland to Quebec has been a circuitous one, covering five continents. After leaving the low-cost Dutch airline in 1977 it went to Saudia, then Aerolineas Argentinas. Next up was the now-defunct Australian Airlines, followed by Air Florida, another former carrier. MarkAir, based in Alaska (also deceased), came next, before a stint as a cargo plane. In 2004, it went to Peru. In 2006, it was bought by the short-lived Italian outfit Voliamo. In 2008, CityLine Hungary – which ceased trading in 2015 – snapped up the well-travelled 737.
Since 2014, however, it has been in the services of little Nolinor Aviation, based in Mirabel, a suburb of Montreal, which serves a handful of domestic destinations using a fleet of 18 aircraft. At 49.7 years, it is, according to the database of Airfleets.net, the world’s oldest passenger plane still in service.
So would you feel safe on board? The reliability of elderly aircraft is occasionally raised, such as in 2017 when a 31-year-old Jet2 plane, also a 737, made two emergency landings in as many weeks.
Passengers were never at risk, Jet2 said, but commentators were quick to point out the age of the aircraft. Registered as G-CELI, it was manufactured in 1986 for Lufthansa. And those problems signalled the end of its many years of service – two months after the incidents, G-CELI was placed in storage and then scrapped in 2020 “due to failures on board the aircraft” and “failed” repairs.
The oldest plane in the Jet2 fleet is currently G-LSAI, a 36.3-year-old 757. On April 10, 2017, with 238 people on board, it bounced on landing at Alicante Airport, suffering a tail strike and extensive damage on what was the co-pilot’s final training flight, but was back in the sky in June of that year.
So are older planes any more likely to suffer problems? The resounding answer from airlines and aviation experts is “no” – as long as they have been looked after.
“It’s not the age of the aircraft that matters, it’s the maintenance,” said Henry Harteveldt, a US-based aviation analyst for Atmosphere Research Group. “There are DC3s built in the 1930s and 1940s that are still flying safely in various places around the world. Delta still operates Boeing 767s that were built 30 or more years ago. Granted, the cabins may be a little long in the tooth, but the aircraft themselves operate reliably and safely.”
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We continually invest in ensuring first-class performance and reliability, whilst at the same time bringing brand-new Airbus A321/A320 into our operation to support growth and fleet replacement.” Nolinor Aviation was contacted for comment.
Airlines will, of course, upgrade their fleets at regular intervals – but economics, not safety, is the motivating factor. “Age itself does not force aeroplanes into retirement,” said Harteveldt. “Two other things do: bad fuel efficiency and low availability of spare parts.”
John Strickland, an aviation consultant, added: “Maintenance increases as an aircraft ages, taking more time on the ground and adding more cost for operators. This may become uneconomical and an airline may simply decide to retire and scrap the aircraft. Another consideration is that older aircrafts are also noisier and may therefore incur financial penalties at some airports.”
So it’s certainly rare to maintain and operate an aircraft as venerable as Nolinor’s 737. According to Airfleets.net, which carries records for 43 models, the only older jets still active are in the hands of cargo firms and air forces. Caspian Airlines, for example, has a 54-year-old 747 (registration: EP-CQB) that once belonged to TWA – but it is used for transporting goods, not people.
Slightly younger than Nolinor’s C-GNLK is C-GMAI, a 737 born in 1978 and operated by Air Inuit, also based in Canada. RUTACA, from Venezuela, has one (YV380T) that first flew in 1981.
Tehran-based Mahan Air has an A300 from 1987, as well as the oldest 747 still being used for passenger services (EP-MNR, born in 1987), while Zagros Airlines, also based in Iran, has a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 made in 1985. Little Eastern Airlines (formerly Dynamic Airways), based in Miami, has a 40-year-old 767, registration N605KW.
In all likelihood, you haven’t flown with any of these minnows, but step a little closer to the modern day and the big boys soon start cropping up.
Of the major players (and as mentioned by Harteveldt), Delta has some of the oldest jets. Its fleet of 978 aircraft has an average age of 15 years, and includes a 34.7-year-old 757, and a clutch of 33.8-year-old 767s.
The average age of the BA fleet is 13.5 years, and its oldest aircraft is a 777, registration G-VIIA, which it received in 1996. It retired the last of its 747s in 2020, when global travel was halted by the Covid pandemic. Gilbert Ott, the creator of the travel blog God Save the Points, lamented the loss of the “Queen of the Skies”. He said: “I’ve experienced the MD-80 and the MD-11 and still love flying the 747 or A340 every chance I get. I still wish BA hadn’t rushed to retire their 747s without a proper send-off.
“They are majestic to say the least. I love the nostalgia that comes from a bygone era, knowing the many legacy carriers that launched these old birds.”
How old is the aircraft taking you on holiday? It’s easy to find out, thanks to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
Jet2’s 36-year-old 757, G-LSAI, spent last week hopping between Manchester and Geneva. Delta’s oldest aircraft, registration N658DL, is currently flying in and out of Atlanta. G-VIID, BA’s most stately Boeing, has recently been flying to New York, Chicago and Cincinnati.
There is another option for fans of elderly aircraft, however. The Airfleets.net database is not exhaustive, with the smallest charter and sightseeing outfits not included. Such as DDA Classic Airlines, based in the Netherlands, which offers pleasure flights for aviation enthusiasts on a DC-3, a model that has been out of service since 1950.
Or, closer to home, there’s Classic Wings, which will take you from IWM Duxford to the heavens in the seat of a Spitfire, concluding with the aircraft’s signature manoeuvre, the victory roll. Now that probably will leave you feeling uneasy.
As for the airlines with the newest fleets? Etihad (7.4 years), Virgin Atlantic (7 years), Singapore Airlines (6.9 years) and fresh-faced, low-cost carrier Wizz Air (5.4 years) are near the head of the class, but none can beat Turkish no-frills outfit Pegasus, which has 103 planes averaging 4.9 years of age.
It might surprise some readers to see the fleet of Aeroflot clocking an average age of just 7.6 years, but its creaking Ilyushins, Antonovs and Tupolevs were retired many years ago. If you really want to fly on a Soviet-built jet, it is possible (Foreign Office warnings notwithstanding). Airfleets.net doesn’t carry data for most Soviet-era aircraft, but a few carriers still use them. Izhavia, based in the Russian city of Izhevsk, has a couple of Yak-42s. And North Korea’s Air Koryo is famous for its ageing Cold War-era fleet.
“Airlines boast about having the youngest fleet because they believe it gives them a marketing advantage,” said Harteveldt. “They – probably correctly – believe passengers will feel more confident choosing a carrier with younger aircraft because newer jets are deemed to be safer. Certainly, there is an environmental benefit. But as the Boeing 737 Max has shown, just because an aeroplane is new, it doesn’t mean that it is perfect.”