British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) will retire all remaining thirty-six B747-400s until the end of 2024, the carrier has announced.

Twenty-four B747s will be retired through 2022 and the remaining twelve aircraft will leave the carrier's fleet in the following two years. The ageing jets will be replaced with a mix of A350s and B787s. According to FlightGlobal, British Airways CFO Steve Gunning said that the new planes will be 30% more fuel efficient than the B747s and provide USD196 million in savings per annum.

The airline is currently the largest operator of the B747s globally. British Airways uses the jets most extensively on routes from London Heathrow to New York JFK, Washington Dulles, Las Vegas Harry Reid and Cape Town International for example, according to the ch-aviation capacity module.

The average age of British Airways' B747s is 21.2 years, according to the ch-aviation fleets module, and all of the thirty-six jets are at least 18 years old. The airline uses the B747s in four seating configurations ranging from 275 to 347 seats in a four-class layout.

This year alone EVA Air, United Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have retired their B747-400s, while Delta Air Lines has scheduled the last flight of a B747-400 for December 17.