Renowned for its long range, the B767-200 was once revolutionary. Nowadays, the 'baby widebody' is an extremely rare type for regularly scheduled passenger flights. In that role, it is now almost entirely about Russia's UTair, but also by Air Zimbabwe (kind of) and Eastern Airlines (one scheduled route – potentially). However, the aircraft (or versions of it) remains more popular with air forces, cargo airlines, governments, and VIP operators.
Who operates the B767-200?
The current operators of the B767-200 are detailed below, including active and inactive aircraft. It's based on ch-aviation.com and cross-referenced with Planespotters.net information. The significance of freighters and the military is obvious, but aircraft in normal passenger use is more exciting for me – I've highlighted them for you.
- 21 Air: three freighters (one leased to DHL)
- ABX Air: 14 freighters (three leased to DHL)
- Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force): four KC-767s
- AeroUnion: two freighters
- Air Zimbabwe: two passenger jets
- Amerijet International: six freighters (four leased to DHL)
- Astral Aviation: one freighter
- ATI: Air Transport International: seven freighters
- Boeing Defense, Space and Security: four KC-46As
- Brunei Government: one VIP
- Cargo Aircraft Management: one passenger, one freighter
- Cargojet Airways: three freighters
- Comlux Aruba: one VIP
- DHL International (separate to 'normal' DHL): four freighters
- Eastern Airlines: four passenger jets
- Elan Express: VIP
- Fuerza Aerea Colombiana: VIP
- Japan Air Self-Defence Force: KC-46A and E-767
- Jordan Aviation: two passenger jets
- MAS Air Cargo: one freighter
- Omni Air International: three passenger jets
- Polaris Aviation Solutions: one VIP
- Raya Airways: three freighters
- Saudi Aramco: one VIP
- SkyTaxi: two freighters (one leased to DHL)
- Star Air: 12 freighters
- United States Air Force: 53 KC-46As
- UTair: three passenger jets
- Weststar Aviation: one freighter
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What about passenger users?
After almost a month of inactivity, Air Zimbabwe utilized Z-WPF, a 31.3-year-old example, on January 19th, Radarbox.com shows. It operated the 593-mile (955km) link from Harare to Johannesburg as UM450.
As you might expect, the USA's Eastern Airlines has mainly been operating charters, including for the Air Force, Army, and government. For example, N604KW last few on January 15th for the Army, routing from Fort Drum (New York) to Alexandria (Louisiana).
After multiple charter flights, including to Guantanamo Bay and between Harlingen (Texas) and San Pedro Sula (Honduras), another Eastern aircraft, N605KW, operated scheduled services. On January 7th and 8th, it completed Miami-Montevideo-Miami, replacing the usual B767-300ER.
Elsewhere, Jordan Aviation's B767-200ERs haven't been used for a while. After lots of flights between Amman and Istanbul, since replaced by the A320 and B737-300, JY-JAL – originally delivered to the UK's Britannia Airways in 1988 – was last used in early December. It flew to Delhi, Addis Ababa, Muscat, and Dhaka.
In 2022, scheduled flights are (mainly) by UTair
Currently, only UTair and Eastern Airlines have scheduled flights by the B767-20ER, with a mere 1,335 flights between them, Cirium shows. Eastern plans to operate between Miami and Santa Cruz (Bolivia). A three-weekly service appears in the carrier's booking engine from March 29th, but it comes up as "oops, no results" when searched. It remains to be seen if it materializes.
That leaves UTair. Cirium shows that the Russian carrier has six routes scheduled, but over 90% are between Moscow Vnukovo and Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, and Anadyr, in the Russian Far East. This means that, across the world, about eight in every ten remaining B767-200ER scheduled passengers flights are on just two routes.
Have you flown the smaller B767 variant? Share your memories and experiences in the comments.