Despite Denver’s first major snowstorm of the season, United Airlines’ last Boeing 737 stopped at DIA on Wednesday on its final scheduled flight, aptly tagged as Flight 737.
It was nostalgic as the 737-322 left Washington’s Dulles International Airport and stopped in Chicago, Denver and Los Angeles before finishing in San Francisco, headed for a graveyard in the California desert.
There were cake and festivities along the way.
Known by plane-spotters as N331UA, the airliner is 21 years old, the last of 94 less-fuel-efficient 737s that United has retired over the past year to cut costs. United has used the 737 for 41 years. It’s using Airbus now.
Golden resident Ken Jeffcoat, an admitted flying and funky-plane junkie, boarded in Denver for the final leg of the trip, up front in seat 1B for a ride to the last stop.
Jeffcoat said he booked a reservation on the “guppy” — a nickname that refers to the plane’s stubby, round profile — when he heard of the retirement.
“It’s a very small part of aviation history, but it’s something that kind of intrigued me,” Jeffcoat, 55, said of the “guppy.”
“I grew up in Seattle (home of Boeing), and I remember when the first 737s came off the flight line and there were no buyers for them.”
Jeffcoat gave himself plenty of time to get to Gate B16 at DIA.
“I can’t wait until they open the door and I can climb in,” he said.
Capt. Bob Russo, who piloted Wednesday’s flight, has spent most of his past 39 years in the cockpit of a United 737 and is headed toward his own retirement.
Russo, who said he prefers the manual nature of the old 737s rather than the computerized nature of today’s planes, was on his last flight as a commercial-aviation pilot.
The 737 will be stripped out and sent to the airplane graveyard in the California desert.
Russo is headed for San Francisco.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com
