Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Boeing is still the largest employer in SEA. They are almost twice the size of Microsoft the number two company. Just like were using a surface I bet there is a widebody Boeing in our future. Complete guess but 787's for the Pacific, 330 Neo's for the Atlantic and perhaps a small number of used 777's for near term 747 replacements.
That would be my guess exactly, without any particular insight.
I also have a theory that used 777's would come in just early enough to replace 747's 1:1, until we get into replacement deliveries. This would have the added benefit of slightly reducing capacity (but not too much), while giving the pilots a place to go. There is a delicate dance going on, to try to keep the airline staffed, and I'm not sure that having displacements in the top category works well. Yes, I understand they don't buy airplanes to have a place to put pilots, but if you have a 747 going out, and you're going to bring in some capacity to backfill some of it...