Got these words from a friend at the Airbus Flex mtg. Been sanatized to just put out the facts/rumors without opinion. It came from the Airbus Instructor meeting last Thursday, and the big wigs stopped in to do their traditional rumoring. The main attraction was Orlando Rosado.


1. He said the first 777 shows up in 09. The first route they will fly it on is MEM-HKG (yeecch)

2. He said the 757 will fly revenue freight in Nov 07, and the first big deliveries in Jan 08

3. He told us about the Airbus mini bid . This is because the Airbus training department is running out of students. He said the next bid will be in June-July and will be a big one. He said it will have the 757 in it, and have about 50 excess off the back of the 10, and 50 off the right seat of the 10.

4. Related to above the excesses off the 10 will almost entirely make the back seat over 60 guys only. Some over 60 guys will be forced to bid the 727.

5. He said they are once again looking at a Europe domicile in Paris. The question was asked about 757 vs A310s. He said Airbus in some way will continue to do MEM based SIBA flying for the foreseeable future, but as the 757 comes on line they will pull Airbuses out and open new markets with the 757. The Paris domicile will be bid with mostly 757 seats. Huge tax issues in the works. France has a 50% income tax. One of the fixes being discussed was to provide appartments and pay the diff in earnings between US Tax an French. But you would lose perdiem due to being based there.

6. The same discussion came up about SUBIC. He said they are committed to continuing SUBIC until a Chinese base can be negotiated with the Chinese and ALPA. They have looked at Hong Kong, Quangcho, and at least two other cities. There are problems with all of them. Evidently the tax on foreigners is outrageous in China. He said it makes French taxes look easy.

 

Thanks for the info!

 

What do you think? MEM-HKG is 16 hours? I hope we get more choices for catering out of MEM!

 

Oh yeah, I heard this from a friend of a Standards guy who knows the guy who cuts Fred's grass....7) They're going to start converting MD-10s back to DC-10s.

 

I pay 50% taxes on my self employed income right here in the USA.

 

I think even longer. A few years ago I did a HKG to EWR deadhead flight, on Continental Airlines' 777. The total flying time, as I recall, was over 17 hours. I told the flight attendant that once we reached top of climb, to please serve me dinner. Then I took two sleeping pills and slept soundly for about 12 hours. When I awoke, I still had a lifetime to sit in that seat. Thankfully, it was in first class, but it's still a very long flight. I hope they have nice sleeping accommodations on the Triple 7, otherwise it's going to be a really loooooong flight.

 

With the paycheck you will get from that leg you could bring takeout from Ruth's Chris!

 

what about converting all of the 727-200s into 100s?

 

I know this may have been thrown out on this board, but how many of the 757's are gonna be in Europe and when will they start flying trips in the US?

 

I did a little quick ciphering on that trip.

Assume 17 hours of block each way. 17x2=34 (public math)

To fit the MEM sort times... Launch at 0900Z..fly,sleep,eat, for 17 hours. Land at 0200Z.

Layover for 34 hours...Launch at 1200Z...fly,sleep,eat for 17 hours and arrive back at the planet 0500Z.

34 hours of pay for 68 hours TAFB. = Time for a new hobby!