Korean Air has reached an agreement to sell five of its Boeing 747-8s to the firm tasked with developing the successor the US Air Force's “Doomsday plane.”
Korean Air has reached an agreement to sell five of its Boeing 747-8s to the firm tasked with developing the successor the US Air Force's “Doomsday plane.”
Reported by Reuters, the Seoul-based carrier will sell the five 747-8s to US manufacturer Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) as part of a deal worth around USD $674 million (KRW 918 billion). In a stock filing posted on May 9, the transaction is expected to take place in September 2025 as part of the Korean carrier's strategy to refresh its fleet with newer aircraft.
SNC recently won a USD $13 billion contract with the US Air Force to develop the successor to the E-4B Nightwatch – known as the “Doomsday plane” - which serves as an airborne command and control center. Designed to survive a nuclear war, the four current E-4 aircraft are modified Boeing 747-200s which have been in service since the 1980s. The E-4Bs also are used to support the US Secretary of Defense when traveling outside the continental United States.
Image: US Air Force E-4B "Nightwatch" (Wikimedia Commons)
According to planespotters.net, Korean Air's current fleet includes a total of 16 747-8s – 9 passenger and 6 cargo aircraft. First delivered to Korean Air in 2012, the airline's 747-8s have an average age of 9 years.
Korean Air is one of three airlines operating the passenger variant of the last line of the 747 family of aircraft – the other two are Lufthansa and Air China.
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