Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) will complete the retirement of its B747-400 fleet by 2017 CEO Richard Anderson has disclosed. Announcing the carrier's third quarter results, Anderson said the Delta's phasing out of the carrier's thirteen B747s would be accelerated "as part of its Pacific network restructuring."

Delta uses its B747s on domestic US flights as well as to Manila Ninoy Aquino International, Nagoya Chubu, Seoul Incheon, Shanghai Pudong, Tokyo Narita, Osaka Kansai, and Tel Aviv Ben Gurion internationally.

The US carrier plans to replace the lost capacity with its incoming fleet of A330-300s.

As it stands, Delta and United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) are the only remaining scheduled operators of the B747-400 passenger version in the United States.