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Air Canada Boeing 747-400
Location: Montreal International Airport,
Dorval, Québec, Canada
Air Canada still flies a handlful of Boeing 747-400s
around the world. The photo above was taken at peak season in July 1999 as it
was arriving from Heathrow Airport, London, England with one of my friends
aboard. Today Air Canada uses these 747s out of Dorval to Frankfurt Germany. The smaller Airbus A330 is used to most other Europen routes from the city. The -400 model of the 747 is one of the largest passenger aircraft in the world. The varient that carriers the most passengers is the 747-400SR which was designed and built especially for the Japanese market. Those planes have extra seating in the upper deck and are distinguised by more windows on the second level. Only Japanese airlines (JAL & ANA) fly these planes. Air Canada's above is a "Combi" version (half freight & passengers) that can be converted to all freight or all passenger configurations. They hold around 250-300
people depending on the configuration. The 747-400SR version can carry
as many as 550 people but those aircraft are designed for "Short Runs"
such as Tokyo-Osaka whereas most every other 747 is designed for long haul intercontinental usage.
Since the turn of the century Boeing has looked to ugrading this aircraft to meet the challenges of the future. Airbus' giant A380 double decker jumbo jet will soon challenge this gracefully aging jetliner as king of the skys. The ex-Seattle now Chicago based company also has it's own inhouse rival to the 747.. their own Boeing 777 twinjet jumbo jet that has enough range, power and passenger capcity to act as a replacement for the earlier variants of the 747, that is the -200 and -300 models. Boeing has proposed several never versions of the 747 but as of 2003 nothing concrete has been decided upon other than an upgraded extended range model that recently entered service. Most 747s are flying with Asian airlines for use across the Pacific as well as the Japan/Korea to South East Asia corridor (Singapore/Bangkok through to Australia) where the high volume of air travel is matched by the large population density on this region. On the Atlantic the 747 has been gradually replaced by A330s, 777s, 767s, MD-11s, A310s and even the single aisle 757s. These smaller jets fly point to point rather than funneling people through major hubs. Over time cities in America and Europe have opened themselves up to direct flights overseas. The 747 can still be seen on some trans Atlantic routes however as witnessed by the sucessful Montreal-Frankfurt 747 service Air Canada provdes today. Regardless of the outcome this plane will have a soft spot in the hearts of spotters the world over... my bet is many of you picked this picture before any of the others listed...
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