Delta Air Lines Inc. retired its first Boeing 747-400 aircraft Sep. 9 after its final flight from Honolulu International Airport to Hartsfield - Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The Atlanta-based airline reported Delta Ship 6301 -- the first Boeing 747-400 delivered to a commercial airline -- made its first flight with Northwest Airlines in December 1989, and has logged more than 61 million miles, enough to make 250 trips from the Earth to the moon. Northwest and Delta merged in Oct. 2008.

The Boeing 747-400, the biggest model of the Boeing 747 family when it was released, is the best-selling aircraft of Chicago-based Boeing's jet airliners. Boeing sold the first ones for about US$150 million each.

Delta's 747-400s carry 376 passengers and cruise at about 560 mph. The double-decker jet has four turbofan engines on the wings and a range of nearly 7,400 miles.

Delta added as it continues to modernize its fleet and improve its Pacific network, "the airline plans to retire the remaining 12 747s in its fleet by 2017, replacing them with smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft that will enable the airline to operate a wider variety of routes, particularly in Asian markets."

Ship 6301 will move to Atlanta's Delta Flight Museum in early 2016.