Agreed. The return of the PW 777’s just means United can sub these high capacity aircraft for current aircraft doing the domestic flying (hub to hub and Hawaii).

It’s convenient for United to be able to blame Boeing for pulling back summer Europe flying, while the real reason is lack of demand and high fuel prices.

Guess that news article was inaccurate.


From Fridays flying together News-

FAA approves 777PW fixes


After more than a year of effort by our Tech Ops teams, the FAA has approved the upgrades that will allow our Pratt & Whitney-powered Boeing 777-200s to return to service. Much of that work has already been done, and we expect to see the first of those 52 aircraft return to revenue service soon.

Thanks to our work-ahead approach developed in close partnership over the last year with the FAA, as well as with Boeing and Pratt, we already have made significant progress on the necessary modifications and other steps the FAA outlined in the March 11 Airworthiness Directives (ADs) associated with the fan blade failure that occurred on Flight 328 in February 2021.

The new ADs detail new fan blade inspection protocols as well as a number of engine nacelle modifications and inspections. We are adding ultrasonic inspections to Pratt’s existing thermal acoustic imaging (TAI) method and also are increasing frequency of inspections. We are also strengthening and adding debris and fire protection to the engine inlet components. We have a large team in VCV (Victorville, Calif.), where much of that work is taking place and where many of the aircraft have been parked. Boeing will also need to complete some work before we can establish our return to service schedule.

This is a good and safe outcome for our industry and United customers. These 52 aircraft are a key part of our plans to ramp up our international service this year. Stay tuned for details on the aircrafts' return to service, and look for a longer feature article next week on Flying Together on the historic work Tech Ops teams have been doing since last year to make it possible to return these aircraft to service safely.

I hope you are right. But FAA approval for the process doesn't mean they will be flying again soon. Lots still to happen.

They knew what the approval would involve and have been working ahead, so they are further in the process than just starting out. I think the turn around will be fast, depending on parts etc.

According to the training department (as of a couple weeks ago) this is incorrect.

Yes, but, even if the a plane is fully modified to the new standard, I think if it has been stored or parked for more than 3 months, it is a 2 week process by MX to reactivate a plane to flying status. So far I have not seen any evidence that any of the planes are being moved, except for heavy MX into and out of XMN. That is but one small part. I'm certain even if it is reactivated soon, each plane will be flown several legs domestically before going over water. Again, more time. I've done some of that. But if they are to fly by the 26th, we need to see stuff happening right about now.....and I'm not.

Thinking seriously about bidding back to NB to watch this all play out. Got a few hours left to decide.

Might be a more stable situation, but I don't think the PW planes returning is going to really affect the 777's block hours much. It's got a lot more to do with the international demand or lack of it. For April, the 777's block hours are up a good bit. The trend should continue into summer.

I wish this was true, but I don’t think so. FAA only gave the company approval to start the required
fixes about 6 weeks ago. According to pilot in early March captain charm school. Boeing is very slow on manufacturing required parts and FAA isn’t letting Boeing do any of inspections. Class was told lucky to have 2 or 3 initially then a considerable time for the rest to come back on line. Also lots of issues with airplanes sitting idle for so long.

Not to turn this into a base argument . Not in EWR. Take a look at the G line as a percentage of staffed pilots. SFO has far more flying as a percentage of base size then EWR. IAH has about the same amount of block hours as Newark and the base is much smaller.