Originally Posted by flybynuts

Planes are 319s.

We plan on delivery of used A319s

We have reached an agreement with AerCap Holdings, a major aircraft leasing company, to lease used Airbus A319s. Eleven aircraft will be delivered over the next two years. In addition, up to 14 more aircraft may be delivered over the next five years subject to certain conditions. These aircraft will supplement our current fleet of 55 A319s and fly routes across our domestic, Caribbean and Latin American network, ultimately helping us reduce dependence on 50-seat regional jets.
For example, we might use two A319s on a route that we currently operate with three 70-seat regional jets, and use those three 70-seat regional jets on routes where we currently use four 50-seat regional jets.
“Our flexible fleet plan allows us to opportunistically add used aircraft when the economics are attractive. These used A319s are a part of the fleet plan refinements we announced recently during our first quarter earnings that will help us to achieve our longer-term network needs without substantially increasing our capital expenditures or planned capacity,” said Fleet VP Ron Baur.
These A319s are currently being operated by China Southern Airlines, and we will begin to take delivery in early 2016. Prior to entering revenue service, the aircraft will undergo heavy maintenance checks to bridge the aircraft to United’s maintenance program and modifications to substantially standardize the aircraft with the existing A319s, which will include all new seats, overhead bin extensions, Wi-Fi and streaming video.


The 773s are in ADDTION TO the 787s. We have delayed some 789 orders for reasons I won't discuss (no big issues just little politics).

Airbus 350 sim comes 2016 and will start making 350 pilots late 2016 if the plan holds. Joint training center should be coming soon. Best and final proposals by the three cities were yesterday.

All in all any mainline additions are a win. You can complain about the little things but this is a good thing.

The additional pilots we have been hiring is due to the need for these airframes as well as trying to build a little pad because all the airlines are hiring so heavily from the infamous "10,000."