Plans for some of the L-UAL 757s
 

...to continue their flying at FedEx it appears.

FedEx Buys Boeing 757s From United to Cut Fuel Costs - Bloomberg

Well I guess the blended rate will go up. Pay raise for reserves.

Soooo.... are those 15 LUAL 75s or 15 LCAL 75s (with an option for another 16)? Can't imagine the LCAL 75s are on the chopping block.

If they're LUAL 75s, what happens to the pilots? Attrition by retirement, or a stop to the recalls at LUAL?

They've been planning on reducing the L-UAL 757-200 fleet all along and replacing them with 737-9's. This isn't anything new or ground breaking.

Hoss beat me to it...

In fact they've slowed the 757 retirements due to the "fireball" (787) and it's issues.

Orrrr...how about post-SLI bumps into whatever fleet/seat they can hold by current LUAL 757 Captains, all of whom were hired between 1978-1990. Soon, we will be one and we will all have to absorb the surplus of the LUAL 757 loss. I believe the company has been proactive in this by not opening LCAL 75/76 bases in LUAL hubs, even though the TPA Extension allows it.

Sled

The number that I've heard is 79 B757 retirements on the UAL side. Many are old, many have corrosion problems, all have de-rated engines (I think), the wing box of some won't support winglets, can't go ETOPS (I've heard this is due to the single x-feed), ... They are to be replaced by the B737-900.

Pratt engine mods (plugs) to increase thrust and a paperwork shuffle to increase the UA757 MGTOW from 225ish k to the CAL 255.5 k could be easily accomplished. In fact, UCH shoulda demanded it as part of "ol' Sparky's" delays. The 737 NG has a single cross feed and its 180 ETOPS, so I'm not sure that's a problem. Even w/o an HMG a 757 should be able to go 180 ETOPS by running the APU or doing a APU cold start reliability test program (like Alaska did) so as to not hafta run it.

I'd much rather have a revamped and retooled 57 that has loads of performance to get out of anywhere and cruise above the weather than the 900er that can't do either.

I would much rather have a 757 than a 737. I have been told that corrosion issues along with the cost of "correcting" the other issues made the aircraft unprofitable. But, what do I know?