Originally Posted by
Hank Kingsley
I know you're connected at the hip with Ed, but weren't we told these were 747 replacement aircraft for Pacific routes.
The first 7. The point of the order was a aircraft that could go from the Eastern US to Shanghai. This was discussed at the roadshows. They invisioned Shanghai as operating much like AMS with as many as 15 Delta flights a day. It takes a lot of aircraft to do that because of the length of the flights. Others on the forum here were posting this information a long time ago. The company even purchased a chunk of CHina Eastern to facilitate this. With the political situation in China and talk of combining many of their airlines under government edict I suspect the whole plan may be going the way of the Taiwan hub.
It's interesting it's no longer mentioned by the company but KAL seems to be much more in the news.
Here is a pretty good summation of our Pacific situation however slightly dated.
https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2016/0...as-narita-hub/
Here is another good article about plans for Shanghai.
http://www.experiencetheskies.com/ho...-shanghai-hub/
Delta Air Lines (DL) Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson said he sees the Atlanta based airline to build an international hub at Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG) and expand its budding relationship with China Eastern Airlines Corp. (MU).
“When you think about what our strategy is long-term, we need to have a hub in Shanghai like the one we have in Amsterdam,” Anderson told employees in a recorded message.