British Airways last week announced that its fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft, fondly known as ‘The Queen of the Skies’, are likely to have flown their last scheduled commercial service.
After nearly five decades of service and millions of miles flown around the globe, it is proposed that the airline’s remaining fleet of 31 747-400 aircraft will be retired with immediate effect.
It is as a result of the devasting impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the airline and the aviation sector, which is not predicted to recover to 2019 levels until 2023/24.
The "fuel-hungry" aircraft were slowly being phased out by British Airways as they reached the end of their working life in order to help meet the company’s commitment to net zero by 2050.
But it begs the question about the future of the airline's Airbus A380 planes - the largest passenger aircraft ever built.
It suffers from the same issues on fuel - particularly at a time when airlines are struggling to fill planes.
British Airways' 12 strong fleet has been in storage since the crisis hit - only moving for maintenance reasons.
Following the announcement about the 747 Business Live asked what the future held for the A380, whose giant wings were made at Broughton in North Wales.
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They responded: "The vast majority of our A380 fleet are in storage in France, but no further decisions have been made at present."
So no commitment to their future from the airline although unlike Air France they have not yet confirmed the plug is being pulled.
Airbus will deliver its final A380 next year, at which point production comes to a halt for a plane that first took off 15 years ago.