Air NZ's first 747 makes long trip to scrapheap

Air New Zealand's first Boeing 747-400 begins its long trip to the scrapheap today, departing Auckland for the United States to be dismantled for parts.

Already stripped of its seats and furniture ZK-NBS will take off at 5.20pm bound for Roswell, New Mexico.

"The final flight of NBS is a sad and very visible example of the effects of the economic downturn on Air New Zealand," airline spokesman Ed Sims said.

The 19-year-old jumbo jet was grounded and put up for sale after performing the airline's biofuel test flight in December.

"We are seeing long-haul demand down more than 10 per cent," Mr Sims said.

"We are very focused on ensuring capacity closely meets demand and are utilising the more fuel-efficient 777 fleet as much as possible to reduce long-haul fuel costs."

After arriving in Auckland from Boeing's Seattle factory in December 1989, NBS completed more than 11,400 flights.

It spent 88,300 hours (more than 10 years) in the air and travelled an estimated 80 million kilometres (the equivalent of 100 round trips to the moon or more than 2000 return trips to London).

- NZPA