Originally Posted by
cadetdrivr
Yup.
Plus, $$$ is being put into the 767s with the Polaris mods. Looks like management is planning on them being around a bit longer---or at least long enough for their replacements (whatever that it.)
The oldest 767-300s are getting the Polaris Mods with the traditional layout of 30BF/46E+/138E. The youngest are slated to get a new mod that is 46BF/22PE/99E. Not sure what the route plan is for these, but it shows that 14 of them will be configured that way. There are also the 3 Hawaiian birds, the first of which just went to HKG for the mods. The Hawaiian birds are young, so they will be in the low density mods as well, at least according to the UA fleet documents.
That will mean 17 in this configuration and 14 in the Polaris configuration and 7 that will stay in the two class configuration done 7-8 years ago. The 14 Polaris and the 7 old configuration have the same total seats, so they are basically interchangeable. What remains to be seen is how long the 7 old configuration will remain around. Then how long the 14 Polaris aircraft remain after that.
It does seem that they have determined which aircraft are the highest priority to keep around, now we will have to wait and see when the economics (as United sees it) and replacement aircraft availability determine that they are no longer worth keeping around.