There Are Just Seven More 757 Passenger Operators

The Boeing 757 has built a stellar reputation for itself, offering narrowbody economics in widebody markets. Entering production in 1981, Boeing built 1,050 units split between its -200 and longer -300 variant.

The 757 was really like a sports car as it featured higher thrust engines, allowing for excellent takeoff performance especially out of short runways, and hot and high-altitude airports. For a narrowbody, it also carried a lot in terms of passengers and cargo. Airlines loved them as they could be used on longer but thinner routes where widebody economics did not make sense.

Unfortunately, the 757 is showing its age after the first production unit rolled off the line 45 years ago, and just like the 747, newer aircraft with better fuel economics are slowly pushing these older jets to the graveyard or cargo duty (at least from a passenger operations perspective). Many of these high performers will see a continued life moving boxes along with their DC10s, MD11s, 747s and A330s brothers and sisters of the freight world.

If you’re also into flight simming like myself, you may have heard about the BlueBird 757 which is still in development, but on the home stretch. They promised a passenger variant first, and it got me wondering how many real operators out there still use 757s in a commercial passenger capacity. When I did the research, the answer was way less than I anticipated.

In this list, I will cover the handful of public commercial 757 passenger operators, some of which operate regularly scheduled flights, while others operate strictly on a charter basis. There are of course other government entities and other related organizations that operate a few, but I won’t be looking at those.

Azur Air (Russia)

Operating out of Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, Azur Air is a charter company offering flight services in association with Turkish-based Anex Tourism Group. Due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict, airline operators in Russia have been blacklisted from sourcing parts from most suppliers worldwide, having to resort to black market techniques to acquire parts for maintenance.

As a result, most of Azur Air’s fleet sits parked at Moscow Vnukovo. Of their 10 Boeing 757-200s, only three are in active service while the remaining seven sit idly by waiting for parts. Azur Air’s 757s are all-economy configured for 238 passengers.

Delta Air Lines (United States)

Currently the largest operator of passenger 757s in the world, Delta Air Lines still remains mostly committed to maintaining its fleet, only retiring older models in favor of newer aircraft.

According to April 2026 data, they had 76 -200s and 16 -300s. Delta offers a variety of configurations within the -200 family. 16 of them offer Delta One lie-flat seats in a 2-2 configuration, while the rest offer the more traditional Domestic First Class recliner seats and economy combo. They also have 11 charter-configured -200s with 72 recliner seats, used for a variety of sports charters.

Fly Khiva (Uzbekistan)

Originally founded as a cargo company, Uzbek carrier Fly Khiva operates a mix of cargo, as well as scheduled passenger and charters. For passenger ops, they utilize two Boeing 757-300s leased from Icelandair (one currently parked for maintenance).

In terms of scheduled service, they operate out of Termez to both Tashkent and Istanbul. Their 757s are configured with 22 business class recliner seats, and 203 in economy.

Icelandair (Iceland)

Icelanair is a long-time operator of Boeing 757s, taking delivery of their very first unit in 1990. Currently, they have eight 757-200s in their fleet, three of which are being leased to various leisure charter operators. They also have two -300s, but these are currently being leased to Fly Khiva.

Unfortunately, the 757s have less than a year left with the Icelandic carrier as the airline recently announced that it would retire these birds once the winter 2026 season comes to a close. Icelandair will also retire their Boeing 767s around the same time period, as it switches to a modern fleet of Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A321neo family aircraft.

Sunday Airlines (Kazakhstan)

Sunday Airlines is a leisure passenger operator owned by Special Cargo Air Transport (SCAT Airlines), operating three Boeing 757-200s and a single Boeing 767-300. The all-economy configured aircraft each seat 235 passengers, and operate flights within Kazakhstan, as well as Turkey and Vietnam.

Skyline Express (Ukraine)

Formerly known as Azur Air Ukraine (2015-2023) and UTair-Ukraine (2008-2015), Skyline Express Airlines is a Ukrainian-based charter company also under ownership of Anex Tourism Group. The carrier has a total of five 757-300s, but only operate two as the other three are parked in Kyiv.

What’s most interesting is that these two are actually leased from Mavi Gök Airlines (MGA), a Turkish charter/leisure airline based in Antalya, which is yet another subsidiary of the Anex Tourism Group. Even though Skyline Express is Ukrainian-based, the two MGA-based 757s actually operate between Antalya in Turkey, and various cities in Germany.

These two 757-300s are in all-economy, seating 275 passengers each.

United Airlines (United States)

Finally, we have United Airlines, which operates 40 757-200s and 21 757-300s. Those numbers will slowly dwindle over time as their -200s are slowly being retired in favor newer Airbus A321XLRs. All of United’s 757-200s have 16 lie-flat business class seats in a 2-2 configuration in combination with economy, while the -300s have first class domestic recliners and regular economy seats.

The -300s are uses exclusively for domestic operations (as well as flights to Hawaii, while the -200s mainly operate coast to coast, to Hawaii, as well as to South America, Iceland, and various parts of west coast Europe.

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