The Boeing 747 inched a notch closer to a production freeze as Boeing revealed plans to lower production of the aircraft to just six a year. This is even lower than earlier reduction predictions that placed production at 12 a year.

The airplane has seen a drastic decline in demand as consumers and airlines both switch over to the newer two engine iterations over the B747’s more traditional four engines. Air France provided the latest blow to the B747 series, retiring their fleet of B747’s in January 2016.

Ray Conner, Chief Executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, indicated that while the future for aircraft remained strong, the inertia in the air cargo market had resulted in the slowing demand for the B747-8 freighter, which was expected to produce the most orders for the latest version of their aircraft.

He stated: “While we remain confident in the 747-8’s unique value proposition… we’re taking the prudent step to further align production with current market requirements”