Originally Posted by
ualratt
Hey Boss, Out of curiosity, weren't those the same B757s that were running out of gas simply trying to cross the North Atlantic recently? Headlines!! "Dozens of Continental Airlines flights to the East Coast from Europe have been forced to make unexpected stops in Canada and elsewhere to take on fuel..." "757s had to stop 43 times..." Then, reminiscent of the 1920s and 30s, CO Ops placing blame on mother nature - something about winds??
Guess LUAL's idea was why spend the money for 757 ETOPS certification if at the very least, the crossings themselves are troublesome in weather worse than clear and calm. Just guessing...
That's why the 767-300's are needed in EWR. Not to make light of the above situation you accurately pointed out but this year was the worse on record for our 757's. Now i'm going to point out something you are not going to like at all.
Since we have been putting the "right aircraft in the right market" for almost a year now, let's review what the almighty s-UAL widebodies have done for business.
1. IAH-LIM needed the extra lift the 767-300 can provide. The reliability of that flight has been so poor that we have lost numerous corporate accounts to AA and DAL. The VP of the IAH hub personally told me that she has received several calls from corporate travel offices from Houston companies telling her that her clients would rather fly to DFW and down to LIM than fly "us" these days. We turned away a lot of money in cargo when we used our 757's on the IAH-LIM route but we supposedly LOSING MONEY now with the aircraft that was supposed to allow us to INCREASE PROFITS exponentially.
2. The 777 that replaced our 767-400 on the HNL-GUM-NRT-GUM segment has cancelled so much that passengers are willingly going over to DAL that now flies widebodies on the GUM-NRT segment and is stepping up operations out of GUM and really giving us a run for our money. The on-time percentage of the 777 flying out of GUM has been cut in half. This is a market that we used to "own".
Now I don't know what the problems are with these aircraft in the two above mentioned markets but I do know that they are the right sized aircraft for the markets. Was it a mistake to place UAL aircraft on these once extremely profitable routes? Is it maintenance? I really don't know the answer.
I think in 2-5 years this airline has the ability to be a huge player in the world. I really hope we don't completely screw it up over the next 2 years with lawsuits etc. and allow Delta to thrive at our expense.