Jets with two engines took over the long haul
In 1990 most flights of 3,000 miles or more were flown by aircraft with three or four jet engines, like Boeing's 747, the Douglas DC-8 and DC-10, and Lockheed's L-1011. Twin jets - planes with two engines - went from only 19% of those departures in 1990, up to 53% in 2001, and 88% in 2019. Tri-jets, the DC-10, MD-11 and L-1011, were almost gone by 2007, and four-engined jets fell from 55% to 5.5%.
Freight tells a slower version of the same story: jets with two engines carried 4% of long-haul freight in 1990 and 60% in 2025, while four-engined freighters, mostly 747s, still carry 55% of what dedicated freighters move.
Share of on of , by number of engines.
Aircraft groups are BTS's: jets with two engines include business jets, jets with three engines are the DC-10, MD-11 and L-1011 (and the shorter-range 727), jets with four or more engines are the 747, A340, A380 and older types such as the DC-8 (BTS puts the very few six-engined aircraft in this group too). Distance is the segment's great-circle length. Freight is in short tons (2,000 lb); "freight flights" are flights classed by BTS as cargo, while "all flights" also counts cargo carried in the holds of passenger aircraft (freight-only and belly cargo). Domestic FedEx and UPS flying is missing before 2001 and 2002 (known gaps), which matters little here because long-haul flights are mostly international.