Originally Posted by
Dave Fitzgerald
This is pretty much what I've been talking about for months. This is fairly logical fleet plan with our system. The 777-300ER's will largely replace the 747's, with the additional orders. The 777x will start to address the age of our first batch of 777-200's. The 737Max 10 might finally be a decent replacement for the 757's. That's what it is aimed at, and what the airlines are asking for--and about the same time the rest of the 757 fleet will age out, so timing would be right.
My uneducated guess is that with the fast delivery of 300ER's, they will retire the 747's ahead of schedule. I wouldn't be surprised if the A350's got converted to A320's or A321NEO's, and we never see the A350. The 777-300's and X's are pretty much the same thing.
With the deferral of the 737-700's we still need to address the RJ conundrum. This proposal does that.
Co management and Jeffry have wanted to get rid of the PW 757's from day 1. The PS planes. The reason they hung around as long as they did was Glenn actually spent some money on winglets and some basic upgrades. They weren't that far out of compliance with the rest of the fleet. We still have plane #2, which is 1989. So with the small number of PW PS planes this move makes some sense, though I hate to see them go.
The 777x is NOT the same plane as our existing 777's and especially for replacing our 777-200's.
The -8 is the same size as the 777-300er but significantly more long range. Think 777-200LR but in a 777-300 body. So way over built for majority of the missions UAL would fly it on. The -9 is even larger then that.
The A350-900 is a direct 777-200 replacement ( the 787-9 somewhat is as it's slightly smaller) for long haul. The 787-10 is for Europe ops, similar to the 777A models, with a limited range.
The A350-1000 is a direct 777-300er replacement. Same dimensions (the 777-300 will have more seats due to 10 across in coach in our configuration) but lighter, longer ranged, and more efficient due to newer technology.
If we aren't going to take the 737-700's due to them being old tech and thus not as efficient on the routes it would fly, why wouldn't the same apply for the widebody's? The benefit of the 777-300 is quick delivery at a good price in order to park the 747's sooner rather then later. The marginal hit in seats is more then offset by the operational cost savings I bet.
I'd also bet on some conversions of -1000's back to the -900's as originally ordered and hopefully some 321's. But we aren't going to outright cancel the order. Just swap the aircraft mix and timelines of deliveries.
My 2¢. Which isn't worth a lot.