Originally Posted by
Swakid8
I don’t see the benefit for a small Narrowbody what’s so ever today… With the increases of crew costs over the last 10 years, they see the value of spreading those increased costs over more seats in quite a bit of the domestic market.
The other segment of the market (premium), larger aircraft provides more floor space to offer more premium seats (domestic lie-flats, Higher number of FC seats, Premium Econ, more Econ+ seats, etc).
The primary reason why Delta took on the A220 to begin with is because Bombardier offered them at a steep discount to become a US launch customer. Just like how Delta acquired the 717s from Southwest after the Southwest/AirTran merger, very very cheap….
United isn’t going to get that kind of deal for the A220 from Airbus
The 319s, 737-700 and 320s at United are not getting any younger. The A220-300 and the (most likely forthcoming) A220-500 replaces everything up to a 737-800, but at a much lower operating cost.
Up-gauging does not work out of smaller markets if you can't sell more than 130 (A223) or 150 (A225) seats profitably.
The opportunity cost of more domestic First class on these planes is also very low at one seat per row. And some markets just don't call for premium lie-flat seating.
Even if United doesn't get Delta's kind of A220 deal from Airbus, they might from JetBlue as part of a divided sale. It would also stop Delta from getting more of a very comfortable and competitive aircraft at a cheap price. Further, United's legacy birds cannot financially compete with the A220, they're just not in the same league for operating costs.