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(CNN) --
A Boeing 747 configured as a private VIP jet is to be disassembled after having only 30 hours in service over 16 flights.
The plane, originally intended for a Saudi royal, was grounded for almost 10 years at EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, located on the border between France, Switzerland and Germany.
Boeing delivers the first 747-8 Intercontinental VIP.
This photo shows the plane taking off for its delivery flight from Paine Field on February 28.
Credit: Ed Turner/Boeing
There it was to be configured with a luxurious interior, but it was not to be and, finding no buyer, the plane ended up in the Pinal Airpark in Arizona, an airplane graveyard where retired planes are dismantled for reuse or stored indefinitely.
fit for royalty
The plane is a BBJ (Boeing Business Jet), a heavily modified edition of Boeing's jets intended for governments and businesses.
Its range of more than 16,000 km and its cabin of about 465 square meters are unrivaled among business jets.
It is also the most advanced model of the Boeing 747 ever made: the 747-8 variant that first flew in 2010 but was not commercially successful due to its high cost of operation.
The latest, delivered to cargo operator Atlas Air in early 2023, marked the end of the 747's production history, though the variant still has a future: Two 747-8s are currently being transformed into the next Air Force One aircraft.
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Boeing has sold more than 250 BBJs to date, the vast majority of them 737s, which have broader market appeal.
The big, expensive, four-engined BBJ 747-8 was a tougher sell: "Ten were built in total, and this is the first to be retired," says Connor Diver, a senior analyst at aviation research firm Cirium.
"It is not known who exactly buys them, but it is a very, very large private plane and the only operators or buyers are usually governments and royal families."
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This 747 was intended for the Government of Saudi Arabia, and specifically for the Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, but he died in 2011, just a few months before the scheduled delivery.
The aircraft, which was assigned a mandatory registration code (N458BJ) first flew in May 2012 for testing, and was officially delivered in June 2012.
"Based on our database, he flew possibly via San Bernardino and then San Antonio in Texas for a couple of months, and then in December 2012 he went to Basel," Diver says.
Typically, large business jets are delivered in what is called a "green" state, after the color of the protective coating on the fuselage, which means they are empty inside and the interior needs to be installed.
"I guess that's why he went there initially, to get kitted out," says Diver.
"Of course, that never happened. And it looks like he was there for 10 years."
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no buyers
The plane that had lost its original purpose went on sale in 2017 for $95 million, down from an original list price of about $350 million, according to Diver.
It was still empty and advertised as "ready for conversion" in a brochure that can still be found online.
But it was never sold.
"Nobody except a Saudi head of state is going to want a four-engine private business jet," says Richard Aboulafia, an aviation analyst at AeroDynamic Advisory.
"You can't convert a single plane to cargo, and nobody wants a passenger version. As a result, the parts, and especially the engines, are worth much more than the plane."
One of the main obstacles to the sale was the high cost of fitting out the interior.
"It would cost $30, $40, maybe $50 million to equip one of these planes," says Diver.
"Although it may be thought of as a new aircraft, the alternative uses that can be put to it are quite limited. The commercial passenger variant had limited production and very few airlines were operating it, and they would not be interested in getting more. So the only other option was potentially another government, but obviously that didn't happen."
Boeing, which declined to answer a series of questions about the plane when contacted by CNN, ended up buying it back in 2022, from an aircraft trading company called Aircraft Finance Germany.
The plane flew to Arizona on April 15, 2022, adding 10 more hours to its time in the air, which is about a quarter of its total flight time.
Its last takeoff from Basel was immortalized on YouTube by fans of aerial photography.
Interior of a Boeing 747-8.
Credit: Boeing
scrap value
At the Pinal Airpark, a Boeing contractor continues to work on disassembling the plane, which has already had the most valuable parts removed.
"I've seen pictures of it and it's already been disassembled, the engines have been removed," says Diver.
"They were indeed new, and one of them is probably around $20 million, so four would be around $80 million."
According to Aboulafia, important systems such as the auxiliary power unit and some of the environmental control systems would also have been among the first to go.
"Total production of the 747-8 is about 150 aircraft," he adds.
"It's a small user group and a small number of aircraft. But on the other hand, they're going to want to keep producing them. I suspect a lot of the components will probably go to the freight people."
It is not clear if the plane will be scrapped entirely or put into storage for parts pickup later.
"What can happen in these cases is that it sits there until a certain part is needed. They may not necessarily take it to the scrapyard and leave it for a few years until someone wants a specific part," Diver explains.
The governments of Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Turkey continue to operate nine more BBJ 747s, according to Diver.
The useful life of a 747 is usually between 25 and 30 years, so the retirement of this plane at 10 years is going to be a difficult record to beat.
Boeing 747