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In 2011, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner entered service, replacing the Boeing 767 as the medium-sized Boeing widebody passenger jet. However, the 767 remains in production as a freighter in 2026, and is even expected to remain in production beyond 2030 as a tanker. The Boeing 767 first entered service in 1982 with United Airlines, and it is set to have a very long legacy.
This is partly because of its strong airframe and the more complicated composite airframes that replaced it. As a passenger aircraft, the Boeing 767’s legacy is not that remarkable. However, it has hit the freighter and military jackpots, all but ensuring it will have a long and lasting legacy deep into the 21st century and long after commercial production shuts down in the coming months.
The Boeing 767’s Early ETOPS Rating
The Boeing 767-200ER entered service in 1984, and in 1985, the FAA increased the ETOPS rating to 120 minutes. This allowed it to fly for up to two hours on a single engine from the closest usable airport and allowed the aircraft to serve routes like that between Boston and Paris. In 1995, the Boeing 777-200 with PW4000 engines became the first twin-engined aircraft to receive an ETOPS-180 rating.
In 2001, Boeing reported that Hawaiian Airlines had earned one of the then-highest ETOPS approvals with its new Boeing 767-300ER aircraft from the FAA. In the report, Boeing claimed that the 767 family “has the lowest operating cost per trip of any widebody airplane.” It added that “this low-operating cost, combined with a choice of one freighter and three passenger models with range capability from 5,645 nautical miles (10,440 km) on the 767-400ER.“
Today, Boeing 767s typically hold ETOPS 180 ratings. This enables them to service almost any long-haul route that they have the range to serve. A higher ETOPS rating wouldn’t likely be particularly useful, as the aircraft lacks the range of modern medium-sized widebody aircraft like the 787. Instead, the 767 has all it needs to service medium to long-haul flights like transatlantic routes.
The Boeing 767-300F Is An Excellent Freighter
Even though the Boeing 767, weighed down by its comparatively heavy aluminum airframe, has been replaced by the 787, it remains a popular freighter. Its robust and heavily landing gear and airframe work against it in the fuel-efficiency-crazed commercial airliner market, but work for it in the freighter industry. In the freighter industry, fuel efficiency is not as important, with capital costs playing a greater role.
The Dreamliner benefits from its light composite-material fuselage, but this is not ideal for freighters, which need a large side cargo door cut into the fuselage, a reinforced floor for very high point loads, and frequent hard landings. It is also more complicated to cut a large cargo door in a composite fuselage, while reinforcing the structure for high point tolerance, adding weight, and eroding weight gains from having a composite airframe. Additionally, it is more difficult to repair a composite airframe.
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Boeing 767 Timeline |
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|---|---|
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Entered service |
1982 |
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Final passenger jet delivered |
2014 |
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Final passenger jet delivered |
2026 (forecast) |
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Final tanker delivered |
2035+ (estimated) |
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Passenger phase out |
Mostly before 2035 |
Building a Boeing 787 freighter would have required Boeing to make significant structural changes to the wing box and fuselage, essentially amounting to a new aircraft program. All this and more meant that the Boeing 767-300F (and larger 777F and 747-8F) will remain the widebody Boeing freighters of choice until environmental regulations catch up with it at the beginning of 2027.
Still, Airbus has put in the extensive work needed to produce a freighter variant of its composite fuselage Airbus A350. The gulf in efficiency between these next-generation aircraft and older freighters is so great that Airbus claims it offers 40% lower fuel burn.
Has The Boeing 767 Program Been Successful?
The type remains in production today, with a three-figure backlog of non-passenger aircraft.
Commercial Passenger 767s Don’t Have Long Left
Most of the Boeing 767s flying today are freighters, with the ratio of commercial passenger examples falling every year. Around 189 Boeing 767-300ERs remain in passenger service, and around 37 Boeing 767-400ERs. These are mostly in service with Delta, United, Japan Airlines, ANA, and LATAM, but their end is coming, and they are being phased out.
In September, Simple Flying reported Delta plans to retire its aging 767-300ERs by 2030 and replace them with A350s and A330neos. United Airlines is the second-largest operator of passenger 767s, and it is also planning to phase out its 767-300ERS by 2030. Other airlines are also planning to phase out their 767-300ERs by around 2030, although the modernized 767-400ER variant in service with Delta and United may fly beyond 2030.
According to Planespotters.net, the most recent Boeing 767-300ER (N172DN) to retire from Delta departed on December 5, 2025, and is now in storage. It is unclear how many of these retiring 767s will be converted into freighters. The 767 first entered passenger service in 1982, and the final new passenger example was delivered in 2014. These aircraft will likely be mostly withdrawn from regular passenger use by 2035 (most by 2030), after 53 years of commercial passenger service.
The End Of Freighter Production
As of the beginning of January 2026, Boeing has a total of 21 examples remaining on order. These include three for FedEx, eight for unidentified customers, and 10 for UPS. These are all expected to be delivered in 2026, after which commercial production of the 767 will shut down. These will not be the last of the Boeing 767 freighters, as many of the retiring passenger aircraft will likely be converted to freighters over the next five or so years.
Freighters typically remain in service for 35-40 years, significantly longer than commercial passenger aircraft, so, barring factors like future regulations pushing the type out of service, it can be expected that the Boeing 767-300F will remain flying until around 2061-2066. As a passenger jet, the legacy of the 767 is nothing remarkable, but as a freighter, it is long-lived. Besides the 767’s strong aluminum airframe mentioned above, another benefit to freighter airlines is that the 767 has excellent engines.
The GE CF6 engine is famous for being the most successful widebody engine ever made. It boasts an excellent dispatch rate and is comparatively easy to maintain. A major drawback is that it is also noisy and inefficient compared with current Rolls-Royce Trent and GE GEnx engines. Noise and emissions run afoul of new regulations, while fuel inefficiency makes it obsolete for new commercial passenger aircraft, although, as stated, this is not as important for freighter companies.
Why Did Boeing Build The 767 With Forward-Tilting Gear?
The forward tilting gear on the 767 comes down to two main factors: better ground handling and limited wheel-well space.
Boeing KC-46A Pegasus Tanker
For years, Airbus and Boeing competed for the US Air Force’s next-generation aerial tanker program to replace the KC-10 Extenders and partially replace the KC-135s. Airbus offered its A330 MRTT, while Boeing offered the Boeing 767-2C. After legal battles, Boeing won, and the Boeing 767-2C entered service as the KC-46. The USAF initially had plans to acquire 179 Boeing 767 tankers.
Now it appears it is planning to procure 188 KC-46s, and that number could grow to 263. These are set to continue to be delivered to the US Air Force and US allies long after the commercial variants of the 767 go out of production at the end of 2026. Once in military service, these aircraft tend to remain in service far longer than their commercial counterparts.
The final 767 tankers are not expected to be delivered until around 2035 to 2040. This means the Boeing 767 will remain in production for around another decade. These tankers are likely to continue flying long after their commercial counterparts have retired. The oldest KC-135 tanker in service today is aircraft 57-1419 and was built in 1957, making it around 68 years old. If the KC-46s live this long, it means the 767 has a shot at flying until 2100.
The Boeing 767’s Legacy Is As A Freighter & Tanker
Aircraft, like the Airbus A380, that fail to break out of the commercial passenger role are doomed to disappear relatively quickly. By contrast, aircraft that find niches like freighters are likely to stick around a decade or two more. The final MD-11 passenger flight took place in 2014, but the type remains in service as a freighter (although the fleet is currently grounded by the FAA). As a freighter, an aircraft type can remain in service for around 35 years after its final delivery.
The final passenger Boeing 707 flew in Iran until 2013, although major airlines (like Pan Am) had retired them as early as the 1980s. A ticket to remain in service for even longer as a military aircraft (the KC-135 is based on the Boeing 707). Air Force tankers and other special-purpose aircraft can remain in service for as much as 60 or 70 years after production has ended.
The Boeing 767 has proven versatile and has found its niche with both freighters and military tankers. It may have been made obsolete as a passenger aircraft by the introduction of the Boeing 787 (and competing Airbus jets), but not as a freighter and military aircraft. In the end, it was the ICAO regulations that were to end its production as a freighter, not market forces.
