Originally Posted by
CLazarus
I just noticed today that all 14 of our new 777-300s are due to be delivered by May, a very quick uptake indeed. Meanwhile, there are only 20 -400s left. Makes me wonder a couple of things: I have to wonder how many -400s are going to be kept around after the '17 summer high season... or now even through it (currently looks like two retirements prior to this summer). If we were to add some more new/used 777s as many have speculated, I imagine the deliveries would ideally be in the spring of '18. Could be an interesting earnings call in Jan.
Well, I didn't boldly predict the retirement of the -400 fleet after this summer but apparently I was on the scent of something. Lots of folks have talked about getting additional 300ERs, and I feel pretty comfortable boldly predicting there are going to be several more coming starting next spring in time for the summer '18 high season. They could be used airframes I suppose, but the most likely sources would be ME carriers (who are parking jets now) needing extensive refurbishment and I see no good reason to put money in their pockets when we can have new airframes for not that much more. Additional 300ERs would also allow us to start retiring our oldest A models in a few years while reconfiguring slightly newer -200ERs for domestic/Hawaii ops. 777-8/9s are definitely a possibility down the road.
Airbus has got to be sweating our 350 order after AA deferred theirs. We may yet get ours, but I expect a deferral at least as the 300ERs will take care of all our needs the next few years. That said, I think a swap of 350s for 321LRs is more likely, to replace our oldest 757s.
I'll bet we are going to buy the C-Series in modest numbers to unlock scope and replace some of our oldest 319s/700s. I also think we'll eventually swap some of our deferred -700s for additional 787s as some of our oldest 767s age out. I pray we don't announce an order for Max -10s this week or ever.
Earnings call this week gentlemen, place your bets!