Originally Posted by
almost professional
No idea! They were the instructions issued, and I could never get an answer as to why - as far as I am aware there is no physical difference but the code changed between the two so the B747/8I was too ‘big’ to go down the Taxiway!
Could be an ACN/PCN issue, I suppose.
AFAIK the landing gear is the same on the 8/8F, but the max weight of the pax aircraft is about 6 tonnes higher than that for some of the freighters. That could be just enough to put the ACNs for the two variants on either side of some demarcation limit for the taxiway in question.