Would you feel uncomfortable flying in a 1974 airplane? Harold Wilson enjoyed/endured his second stint in Number 10, the band Queen was in all its splendor, man’s first small step on the surface of the moon was still relatively fresh in the memory. And 1974 was also the year that a Boeing 737-200, serial number 20836, made its maiden flight for the Netherlands-based Transavia Airlines.
Fifty years later, Wilson, like Freddie, has shaken off this mortal coil as NASA hopes to establish 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.
The journey from the Netherlands to Quebec was a circuitous journey, spanning five continents. After leaving the Dutch low-cost airline in 1977, it went to Saudia and then to Aerolineas Argentinas. Next was the now defunct Australian Airlines, followed by Air Florida, another former airline. Alaska-based MarkAir (also deceased) came next, before a stint as a freighter. In 2004 it went to Peru. In 2006 it was bought by short-lived Italian outfit Voliamo. In 2008, CityLine Hungary – which ceased operations in 2015 – bought the well-traveled 737.
However, since 2014 it has been employed by the small Nolinor Aviation, based in the Montreal suburb of Mirabel, which serves a handful of domestic destinations with a fleet of 18 aircraft. At 49.7 years old, it is the oldest passenger aircraft still in service in the world, according to the Airfleets.net database.
So would you feel safe on board? The reliability of older aircraft is occasionally increased, such as in 2017 when a 31-year-old Jet2 aircraft, 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 that the plane was old. Registered as G-CELI, it was manufactured for Lufthansa in 1986. And those problems spelled the end of its many years of service – two months after the incidents, the G-CELI was placed in storage and then scrapped in 2020 “due to onboard aircraft malfunctions” and “failed” repairs.
The oldest aircraft in the Jet2 fleet is currently the G-LSAI, a 36.3 year old 757. On April 10, 2017, with 238 people on board, it bounced on landing at Alicante airport, suffering a tail strike and large suffered damage on what was the co-pilot’s last training flight, but was back in the air by June of that year.
Are older aircraft more likely to experience problems? The resounding answer from airlines and aviation experts is ‘no’ – as long as they are properly taken care of.
“It’s not about the age of the plane, it’s about the maintenance,” said Henry Harteveldt, a U.S.-based aviation analyst for Atmosphere Research Group. “There were DC3s built in the 1930s and 1940s that still fly safely in various places around the world. Delta still operates Boeing 767s built 30 or more years ago. Admittedly, the cabins may be a bit long, but the aircraft themselves operate reliably and safely.”
A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We are continually investing in ensuring best-in-class performance and reliability, whilst bringing the brand new Airbus A321/A320 into our operation to support fleet growth and replacement.” Nolinor Aviation was contacted for comment.
Airlines will of course upgrade their fleets at regular intervals – but economics, not safety, is the motivating factor. “Age in itself does not force aircraft to retire,” says Harteveldt. “There are two other things that do that: poor fuel efficiency and low spare parts availability.”
John Strickland, an aviation consultant, added: “Maintenance increases as an aircraft ages, taking more time on the ground and increasing costs to operators. This can become uneconomical and an airline may simply decide to retire and scrap the aircraft. Another consideration is that older aircraft are also noisier and therefore may incur financial penalties at some airports.”
So it is certainly rare to maintain and operate an aircraft as venerable as Nolinor’s 737. According to Airfleets.net, which maintains records for 43 models, the only older aircraft still in operation are in the hands of cargo companies and air forces. Caspian Airlines, for example, has a 54-year-old 747 (license plate: EP-CQB) that once belonged to TWA – but is used to transport goods, not people.
Slightly younger than Nolinor’s C-GNLK is the C-GMAI, a 737 born in 1978 and operated by Air Inuit, also based in Canada. RUTACA, from Venezuela, has one (YV380T) that first flew in 1981.
Tehran-based Mahan Air has a 1987 A300, as well as the oldest 747 still used for passenger services (EP-MNR, born 1987), while Zagros Airlines, also based in Iran, has a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 in 1985. Little Eastern Airlines (formerly Dynamic Airways), based in Miami, has a 40-year-old 767, registration N605KW.
In all likelihood you’ve never flown one of these minnows, but step a little closer to the modern era and the big boys soon start showing up.
Of the major players (and as mentioned by Harteveldt), Delta has some of the oldest jets. The fleet of 978 aircraft has an average age of 15 years and includes a 34.7-year-old 757 and a group of 33.8-year-old 767s.
The average age of the BA fleet is 13.5 years, and the oldest aircraft is a 777, registration G-VIIA, which it received in 1996. The last of its 747s was retired in 2020, when global travel was halted by the Covid pandemic.
Gilbert Ott, creator of the travel blog God Save the Points, lamented the loss of the “Queen of the Skies.” He said: “I have experienced the MD-80 and the MD-11 and still love flying the 747 or A340 every chance I get. I still wish BA hadn’t rushed to retire their 747s without a proper send-off.
“They are majestic to say the least. I love the nostalgia that comes from times gone by, knowing that there are many historical carriers who brought these old pigeons to the market.”
How old is the plane you are taking on holiday? It’s easy to find out thanks to the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
Jet2’s 36-year-old 757, G-LSAI, spent last week between Manchester and Geneva. Delta’s oldest aircraft, registration N658DL, currently flies in and out of Atlanta. G-VIID, BA’s most stately Boeing, recently flew to New York, Chicago and Cincinnati.
However, there is another option for fans of older aircraft. The Airfleets.net database is not exhaustive; the smallest charter and sightseeing outfits are not included. Such as the Netherlands-based DDA Classic Airlines, which offers pleasure flights for aviation enthusiasts on a DC-3, a model that has been out of service since 1950.
Or, closer to home, there’s Classic Wings, which takes you from IWM Duxford to the skies in the seat of a Spitfire, ending with the aircraft’s signature maneuver, the victory roll. That will probably make you feel uncomfortable.
As for the airlines with the newest fleets? Etihad (7.4 years), Virgin Atlantic (7 years), Singapore Airlines (6.9 years) and the new low-cost carrier Wizz Air (5.4 years) are at the top of the class, but no one can beat the Turkish no. -nonsense outfit beat Pegasus, which has 103 planes that are on average 4.9 years old.
It may surprise some readers to see that the Aeroflot fleet has an average age of just 7.6 years, but the creaking Ilyushins, Antonovs and Tupolevs were retired many years ago. If you really want to fly a Soviet-built plane, you can (despite warnings from the State Department). Airfleets.net does not have records of most Soviet-era aircraft, but a few airlines still use them. Izhavia, based in the Russian city of Izhevsk, has a pair of Yak-42s. And North Korea’s Air Koryo is known for its aging Cold War fleet.
“Airlines brag about having the youngest fleet because they think this gives them a marketing advantage,” says Harteveldt. “They believe – probably rightly – that passengers will have more confidence in choosing an airline with younger aircraft because newer aircraft are considered safer. There is certainly an environmental benefit. But as the Boeing 737 Max has shown, just because an aircraft is new does not mean it is perfect.”