The 19-year-old jumbo, named The Bay of Islands, was grounded and put up for sale in December, the Dominion Post reported.
There were two potential buyers who would probably dismantle the aircraft overseas, Air NZ's head of long-haul airline Ed Sims said.
Long-haul demand was down 10 to 15 per cent and airlines around the world were grounding aircraft to minimise losses, Mr Sims said.
A sale was expected to be concluded within the next few weeks.
The grounded 747 was delivered to Air New Zealand from the Boeing factory near Seattle on December 16, 1989.
It had a book value of about $5 million, just a fraction of the $US250m ($NZ410m) list price for a new 747-400.
