Originally Posted by
C11DCA
If you go to the United Fleet Upgrade Status thread on airliners (which has commonality with the United Mainline Fleet webpage and the Flyertalk thread via the same folks maintaining both) multiple posters claim the 7 767’s are to be retired.
I don't see it on the upgrade page and that site was started by a high school kid who wants to be an airline CEO some day. It has proven to be accurate while Flyertalk is more of an airline-sniff rumor mill.
United management has not indicated those aircraft are slated for retirement, but stated that depending on demand as planes come up on heavy maintenance or the end of their leases UA has the option of giving the A/C back to the lessor, buying & keep flying it or using the aircraft for parts. As you said it is a matter of when.
Originally Posted by
C11DCA
We currently have 132 777/787 (92 777 and 40 787 for year end 2018). Minus the 18 777-300 that the leaves a 777 fleet of 74 to be replaced eventually. We have 45 A350 on order. If the 787 fleet grows to 75 as folks are predicting, that still leaves 12 more aircraft beyond the 350 order needed to match our current widebody fleet. Even more if we grow.
So I don’t think a decision has been made re the 350 as those airframes are certainly needed and the 350 provides capabilities that neither the -10 (in terms of range) or the -9 (in terms of seats) can match. It slots nicely between the -9/-10 in terms of seats and as a 777-200 replacement with some seat growth. (Delta has 306 seats in theirs but UAL traditionally isn’t as densely configured so say 290-300 seats for ours. Our 777-200’s will seat 276 once fully reconfigured and the 787-9 seats 252, the 787-10 is 318)
Kirby just told a friend that the chances of UA getting A330s is 5% and A350s is 20%. Management is becoming more inclined to use 777Xs to fill the capacity/range niche while enjoying the benefits of not adding another fleet type.