<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">heard that 12 are being traded</font>
744, your news is yesterdays, BA are now keeping all the 744's and in fact are recruiting DEP's onto it (see other threads). There will always be a requirement for an aircraft larger than a 777 in BA's route network.
How long? 10 years plus is my guess. The 744 is still being manufactured so even if BA need to, they could still buy more.
That's todays news.
Rod