Refurb wrapup

The backlog of older 747-8s is winding down. Lines 1432 (Saudi Arabian), 1437 (unknown), and 1438 (Cathay) have all finished up refurbishment and are ready to fly. This leaves only three:

1. Line 1421 for Nippon Cargo, still at Lackland AFB in San Antonio.
2. Line 1433 for Cathay, which now has engines and is almost ready to fly as well.
3. Line 1435 for Boeing, which could be a ways away from flying again, what with all the new stuff they're doing to her in preperation for test flights towards the end of the year.

As a sign of this, a new Lufthansa 747-8I sits in stall 118, which has been a 747-8 refurbishment spot for a long time now. It's still a mystery who's going to get line 1437, but Boeing seems to be speeding right along like she has a customer. By the middle of this year, there should only be one or possibly two of these frames still sitting around KPAE. About time these slackers move on, I say! Still, it might get kind of boring around here, not being able to track older frames. I guess we'll see.

On a side note (and because I was refreshing myself on this after seeing it mentioned on airliners.net), Nippon Cargo Airlines has ten very new 747-400Fs (two are leased to AirBridgeCargo). NCA in fact has the second to last 747-400F ever built, line 1418, which isn't even four years old yet. Of course United Airlines would probably retire them all to be scrapped (zing!) but they're all very young airplanes. NCA also has two 747-8Fs and twelve more on order. One undelivered frame is parked long term for a "deferred delivery", and more will likely follow. Their business plan shows them leasing the rest of the 747-400Fs out and operating the 747-8Fs in their place. Three more should be taken for delivery this year, and three next, although all six of these planes are scheduled to be complete and ready for delivery this year. The remaining six of the 14 frame order aren't scheduled for construction yet, nor mentioned in the latest business plan, so who knows what's up with them.