Northwest Airlines retires the last Boeing 747-200F (updated)

Northwest Airlines-NWA (subsidiary of Delta Air Lines) (Minneapolis/St. Paul) operated the last of its Boeing 747-200 freighter flights on revenue flights on Saturday (December 19) as two of the giant aircraft touched down in Chicago and Los Angeles carrying full loads of cargo. Northwest flight NW 908 (with N632NW) departed Osaka and arrived in Chicago (ORD) with 73 tons of cargo, an 89 percent load factor (the last revenue flight). Northwest flight NW 906 (with N639US) departed Shanghai and arrived in Los Angeles (LAX) with 81 tons of cargo, a 99% load factor. Delta has parked its 10 wholly- owned Northwest 747-200 freighters, where they will remain in long-term storage. Two other 747s were returned recently to a leasing agent.

The pictured Boeing 747-251B N632NW (msn 23112) had the honor of operating the last revenue flight (flight NW 908).  Here is a disposition of each aircraft and the total hours:

N623US (21705) F9860-25NOV09 MSP-MZJ 103117HRS TOTAL TIME, 18171 CYCLES

N624US (21706) F9860-27NOV09 COS-MZJ 106418HRS TOTAL TIME, 19109 CYCLES

N631NW (23111) F9860-26DEC09 LAX-MZJ  92246HRS TOTAL TIME, 14118 CYCLES

N632NW (23112) F9861-28DEC09 ORD-MZJ  93928HRS TOTAL TIME, 14625 CYCLES

N639US (23887) F9862-26DEC09 LAX-VCV   80975HRS TOTAL TIME, 17442 CYCLES

N640US (23888) F9874-21NOV09 LAX-MZJ   80466HRS TOTAL TIME, 17267 CYCLES

N643NW (22245) F9860-29DEC09 ORD-ARG 97392HRS TOTAL TIME, 22176 CYCLES

N644NW (24177) F9861-26DEC09 ORD-MZJ  76406HRS TOTAL TIME, 14122 CYCLES

MZJ-MARANA, AZ

VCV-VICTORVILLE, CA

ARG-WALNUT RIDGE, AR


Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing.