Have you ever wondered just how much time the world’s most well-used active aircraft have spent in the skies? Then look no further, as it’s time to sit back and crunch some numbers using data from our friends at ch-aviation.com. Let’s take a look at the world’s active aircraft to find out which have had the busiest service lives. We shall do so in terms of both flight hours and flight cycles.
Busy Boeings
Let’s start by examining the rankings as far as flight hours are concerned. Data from ch-aviation shows that the busiest active aircraft by this metric is a Boeing 767-300ER freighter belonging to Cargojet Airways. This 34.82-year-old jet (C-FCAE) had racked up a staggering 144,486 flight hours as of November 2022. It previously flew for carriers including the likes of Canadian Airlines and Air Canada.
The next two aircraft on the list are also 767s. However, in this instance, they are both examples of the passenger-carrying 767-300ER version. Flying for German leisure carrier Condor, the busiest of these 30-year-old veterans (D-ABUC) had amassed 144,402 hours as of November 2022, and D-ABUA had 143,879.
Rounding out the top five in this metric, we first have a Boeing 747-400 freighter owned by Korean carrier Asiana. Registered as HL7413, this 31.38-year-old jumbo ranks fourth with 142,453 hours as of November 2022. Meanwhile, fifth place is occupied by C-FTCA, another Boeing 767-300ER freighter that is flown by Air Canada. As of November 2022, it had racked up 140,352 hours over 25,115 cycles.
What about flight cycles?
A common theme among the aircraft with the most flight hours is that they are all long-haul designs. As such, the hours that they have racked up are spread across fewer cycles. Therefore, it is also worth examining the aircraft that have completed the largest number of these, even if they haven’t amassed the same number of hours in doing so. This provides insight into the contrasting uses of such planes.
Previously speaking, a de Havilland Dash 8-100 turboprop belonging to Norwegian regional carrier Widerøe, and registered as LN-WIB was known for having the most cycles, having surpassed the 100,000 cycle mark. This was indicative of the ‘milk run’ style flights with multiple short sectors that the carrier deployed it on. However, such data for these aircraft is seemingly no longer available.
As such, the most well-used aircraft in terms of flight cycles, as per ch-aviation’s data, now appears to be N476HA. This 22.03-year-old Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717-200 had clocked some 74,798 sectors as of November 2022, with the vast majority of these likely having been part of island-hopping itineraries.
The best of the rest
In fact, Hawaiian Airlines’ Boeing 717-200s account for nine of the top 10 aircraft, with the rest ranging from 72,182 to 74,122 flight cycles. The only exception in this regard is another rear-engined twinjet, namely an Aeronaves TSM McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10F registered as XA-UXR. As of December 2014, this aircraft had racked up 73,507 cycles, and has likely since added more to its total.
Outside of the top 10, there are two more aircraft that ch-aviation lists as having amassed more than 70,000 flight cycles over the course of their career. The first of these is another Aeronaves TSM DC-9 freighter, namely XA-VBE, which, as of June 2013, had 71,693 cycles (totaling 77,092 flight hours) to its name.
Finally, one of Air Panama’s Fokker 50s had racked up 70,476 flight cycles as of June 2022. Registered as HP-1606PST, this turboprop is now almost 3 years old.
Source: simpleflying.com