by Would you feel uncomfortable flying on a plane built in 1974? Harold Wilson was enjoying/continuing his second stint in Number 10, the band Queen were in trouble, man’s first small step on the surface of the moon was still quite fresh in the memory. And 1974 was also the year that a Boeing 737-200, with serial number 20836, made its maiden flight for Transavia Airlines, based in the Netherlands.
Fifty years later, Wilson has shaken this mortal coil, as has Freddie, and NASA hopes 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.
It was a circuitous trip from Holland to Quebec, covering five continents. After leaving the Dutch low-cost airline in 1977 he went to Saudia, which was then Aerolineas Argentinas. This was followed by the now defunct Australian Airlines, followed by Air Florida, another former carrier. Alaska-based MarkAir (also defunct) followed, before serving as a cargo plane. In 2004, he went to Peru. In 2006, it was bought by short-lived Italian outfit Voliamo. In 2008, Hungary’s CityLine – which ceased trading in 2015 – removed the well-traveled 737s.
However, since 2014, it has been in the services of a small Nolinor Aviation, located 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 Airfleets.net database, the world’s oldest passenger plane still in service.
So, would you feel safe on board? The reliability of older aircraft is raised from time to time, for example in 2017 when a 31-year-old Jet2 plane, also a 737, made two emergency landings in as many weeks.
Passengers were never in danger, Jet2 said, but commentators were quick to point out the age of the aircraft. Registered as G-CELI, it was made in 1986 for Lufthansa. And those problems signaled the end of its many years of service – two months after the incidents, G-CELI was put into storage and then scrapped in 2020 “due to failures on board the aircraft” and “failed” repairs.
The oldest plane in the Jet2 fleet at the moment is G-LSAI, 36.3 years 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 to the size. it was the co-pilot’s last training flight, but he was back in the sky in June of that year.
So older planes are more likely to have problems? The resounding answer from the airlines and aviation experts is “no” – as long as they were taken care of.
“It’s not the age of the aircraft that matters, it’s the maintenance,” said Henry Harteveldt, a US-based aviation analyst for the Atmosphere Research Group. “There are DC3s built in the 1930s and 1940s that are still flying safely in various parts of the world. Delta still operates Boeing 767s that were built 30 or more years ago. Granted, the cabins can be a little long in the tooth, but the aircraft themselves operate reliably and safely.”
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We continue to invest to ensure world-class performance and reliability, while introducing a brand new Airbus A321/A320 into our operation to support fleet growth and replacement.” Nolinor Aviation has been contacted for comment.
Airlines will, of course, upgrade their fleets regularly – but the driving factor is economics, not safety. “Age itself does not force airplanes into retirement,” Harteveldt said. “Two other things do: poor fuel efficiency and low availability of spare parts.”
Aviation consultant John Strickland said: “Maintenance increases as an aircraft ages, taking more time on the ground and increasing costs for operators. This may become uneconomical and an airline may simply decide to retire and scrap the aircraft. Another issue is that older aircraft are also noisier and may incur financial penalties at some airports.”
It is therefore very rare to maintain and operate an aircraft as reliably as the 737 Nolinor. According to Airfleets.net, which carries records for 43 models, the older jets are still active in the hands of cargo firms and air forces. For example, Caspian Airlines has a 54-year-old 747 (registration: EP-CQB) that once belonged to TWA – but it is used to transport goods, not people.
Slightly younger than C-GNLK Nolinor is C-GMAI, a 737 born in 1978 and operated by Air Inuit, also based in Canada. RUTACA, from Venezuela, has one (YV380T) which first flew in 1981.
Tehran-based Mahan Air has a 1987 A300, as well as the oldest 747 still in use for passenger services (EP-MNR, born 1987), and a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 Zagros Airlines, also based in Iran. in 1985. Little Eastern Airlines (formerly Dynamic Airways), based in Miami, has a 40-year-old 767, registration N605KW.
Chances are, you haven’t flown with any of these minis, but step a little closer to today and the big boys soon start to grow.
Of the big players (and as mentioned by Harteveldt), Delta has some of the oldest jets. Their fleet of 978 aircraft has an average age of 15 years, and includes 34.7 year old 757s, and a clutch of 33.8 year old 767s.
The average age of BA’s fleet is 13.5 years, and the oldest aircraft is a 777, registration G-VIIA, which it acquired in 1996. It retired the last of its 747s in 2020, when a pandemic Covid stopped global travel.
Gilbert Ott, creator of the travel blog God Save the Points, mourned the loss of the “Queen of the Skies”. He said: “I’ve experienced the MD-80 and the MD-11 and I still love to fly the 747 or the A340 every chance I get. I still wish BA wasn’t in a rush to retire their 747s without proper intervention.
“They are majestic to say the least. I love the nostalgia that comes from a bygone era, knowing the many legacy carriers sent by these old birds.”
How old is the aircraft you take on holiday? It’s easy to find out, thanks to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
G-LSAI, a 36-year-old Jet2 757, spent last week hopping between Manchester and Geneva. Delta’s oldest aircraft, registration N658DL, currently flies in and out of Atlanta. G-VIID, BA’s most majestic Boeing, has recently flown to New York, Chicago and Cincinnati.
There is another option for older aircraft fans, however. The Airfleets.net database is not exhaustive, and does not include the smallest charter and sightseeing outfits. Such as DDA Classic Airlines, based in the Netherlands, which offers aviation enthusiasts pleasure flights 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 Skies in the seat of a Spitfire, finishing with the aircraft’s signature maneuver, the victory roll. Now that will probably leave you feeling uneasy.
As for the airlines with the newest fleets? Etihad (7.4 years old), Virgin Atlantic (7 years), Singapore Airlines (6.9 years) and fresh-faced low-cost carrier Wizz Air (5.4 years old) are close to the head of the class, but not to beat any Turkish outfit without frills. Pegasus, whose 103 aircraft are 4.9 years old on average.
It may surprise some readers to see Aeroflot’s fleet at an average age of 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, you can (warnings from the Foreign Office notwithstanding). Airfleets.net does not carry data for most Soviet-era aircraft, but some carriers still use them. Izhavia, based in the Russian city of Izhevsk, has a few Yak-42s. And North Korea’s Air Koryo is known for its aging Cold War-era fleet.
“The airlines pride themselves on having the youngest fleet because they believe it gives them a marketing advantage,” Harteveldt said. “They believe – probably correctly – that passengers will have more confidence in choosing a carrier with younger aircraft because new jets are considered safer. Certainly, there is an environmental benefit. But as the Boeing 737 Max showed, just because a plane is new, doesn’t mean it’s perfect.”
