Originally Posted by
Thotsbgone
Food for thought, the 767s have another 6ish years left of life. They've been having tons of problems for several years now, showing their age. European outstations hate them from a reliability standpoint. I know they print money since we own them and carry the right blends of seat classes, but they'll have to go eventually. The A330neo is a great replacement for the 767. It'll hit all the places in Europe that the 767 does and seat the same kind of cabins.
The 350 has about the same capabilities (give or take) as the 787 which Boeing can't seem to produce right now.
While I don't see us taking A350s to duplicate the 787 we're committed to, I can see United buying a bunch more 321neos and adding the A330NEO to the mix starting in 2028ish to start replacing the 767
Just my $0.02
The A-350 holds over 50 more passengers than the 787 does. Its going to be the 777 replacement. Kirby is a numbers guy and he's not going to replace 777s that have 364 seats with 787-10s that only hold 318 people.
Would honestly be shocked to not see a massive A-350 order soon. The A-330 is also a great replacement for the 767s.
Kirby is not going to hope that Boeing gets their act together. They have screwed up the Max-10 order and are significantly late on the 787s.
United already has 170 A-321s coming and its easy to believe there are another 200-250 being negotiated with a WB order as well. Airbus even said publicly they are trying to get orders from other airlines to facilitate a large order from United.
It gets announced in July right before United starts new hire classes. My bet is that the announcement is July 22nd, the day before new hire classes start up on the 23rd.