While an icon of the aviation industry, passenger variants of the Boeing 747 are becoming increasingly rare in the skies. Next month, just four airlines are scheduled to operate the passenger version of the Queen of the Skies. But where will you find the jumbo jet? We looked at schedule data from Cirium to find out.

4 Asiana Airlines

Asiana Airlines has a handful of passenger services planned with the Boeing 747-400 in December. Just four rotations are planned on a single route (to Changchun, China), meaning that it is unlikely to be a good option for flying on the Boeing 747 unless passengers happen to be flying in that direction anyway or passengers specifically want to fly on Asiana's sole passenger 747. According to data from ch-aviation.com, Asiana's only passenger Boeing 747 is a 24.48-year-old aircraft registered HL7428.

The four Boeing 747-400 rotations are scheduled on Tuesdays in December as follows,

3 Korean Air

While its proposed merger with Asiana Airlines remains under scrutiny, Korean Air remains a competitor. However, if the competition is "Boeing 747 flights planned in December 2023", Korean Air is the clear winner. The airline has 123 rotations planned from Seoul Incheon Airport next month.

Korean Air has ten passenger Boeing 747-8s, though only seven are listed as active by ch-aviation. The airline has flights planned to the following destinations,

2 Air China

Air China is one of two airlines planning flights with both the 747-400 and 747-8 next month. The Chinese carrier has 217 rotations planned from its Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) base, all of which are domestic flights. Intesteringly, data from ch-aviation suggests that all three of the airline's Boeing 747-400s are currently in storage, along with five of seven -8s.

According to Cirium's schedule information, the following Boeing 747 rotations are planned from (PEK) next month,

• Guangzhou (CAN) - Boeing 747-8 - 3x daily
• Shanghai-Metro (SHA) - Boeing 747-8 - 2x daily
• Shenzhen (SZX) - Boeing 747-400 - 2x daily

1 Lufthansa

German flag carrier Lufthansa is by far the largest remaining passenger Boeing 747 user. The airline has 417 rotations, with the -400 and -8 planned from its Frankfurt Airport stronghold next month (more than the other three carriers combined). Lufthansa has 27 Boeing 747s, comprising eight -400s and 19 -8s. Just three aircraft are not currently in active service. D-ABYR (a 747-8) is listed as stored, having last flown from Frankfurt to Beijing (PEK) on October 30th. Meanwhile, D-ABTL and D-ABVY (both 747-400s) are listed as in maintenance. Both have been in Frankfurt since the end of October.

According to Cirium's flight schedule data, Lufthansa is planning the following Boeing 747 flights next month from Frankfurt Airport (FRA),

Have you flown on a Boeing 747 this year? Let us know what you think and why in the comments below (click the blue box with the speech bubble icon)!

Sources: ch-aviation, Cirium, FlightRadar24.com