787 IAH to SYD
 

Does anyone know why this flight has so many seats held? A 787 pilot that I asked didn’t know, but said that it wasn’t for weight. The loads are usually really low also. 114 open seats tonight including the 46 seats that are held. The return flights seem to have good numbers though with no seats held.

Seats are held for routing to keep in ETOPS. Once we get 240 approval then the held seats should drop dramatically.

I know some other internation routes are held for Star Alliance. I don't know why, or how.

Thanks. Engine reliability sure has come a long way. 4 hours on one engine is a long time.

It is for fuel consumption, not structural gross weight. With full tanks, if you still do not have enough room for required fuel, the only options are an enroute fuel stop or reduce ZFW enough to get the burn down so that fuel required is now down to fuel available with full tanks.

This is not uncommon on really long range flights.

United already uses the closest legal alternate (although dispatch may tell you that they REALLY don't want you to land there).

United also does redispatch flight plans to reduce required enroute reserve fuel. It might be possible to reduce this very slightly with a second redispatch, but ALPA and UAL have agreed not to take this additional complicating step for a very marginal fuel savings.

United also operates under a number of exemptions and exceptions to the general enroute reserve requirements which serve to reduce enroute reserve substantially, but a great deal of this is "given back" when operating ETOPS to SYD. Enroute reserve requirements returning to IAH are much less.

Joe

Joe