There are a lot of moving parts. But I'm all for more mainline planes staying. We need retirements and growth! I've said it before but I would fly a plane full of rubber dog poo out of Hong Kong. I want our work groups and customers to be happy.

FedEx is putting that glass cockpit in our old 757's.

Unfortunately I believe boxes pay a lot more than people. You think nothing of next day air a piece of paper required by a lawyer, but by god I'll 3 leg it with 6 hours of layover time to save $20 on airfare...

I was trying to find info on the retirement plan for the -400. Out of curiosity what was the "intended" year for the fleet to be parked?

Depends on which "plan" you are talking about. There have been several totally different plans publicly stated by UAL over the past several years not even counting the various internal back-of-the-napkin initiatives.

But officially: when the A350-900 was originally ordered in 2009 (and announced as the 747 "replacement") the deliveries were scheduled for 2016-19. With conversion of the order to the A350-1000 in 2013 the first deliveries were pushed back to 2018.

That said, the fleet plan is obviously fluid and with lots of 787s coming online UAL could either use them for international growth or place them on routes that free up larger 777s for the 747 routes or some combination. The long range planning committee meets twice a day so really the only certainty is the "plan" will change again.

Thanks for the insight. I figured the retirement had many variables to it, but this info highlights just how many issues can affect the final days of the -400.

Considering some of these aircraft are less than 13 years old, they could fly them for a long time, I suppose. The current 24 747s are late 90s early 2000s deliveries, so they aren't that old. Many of the Airbus are even newer than this.

I was thinking the same thing regarding their age. United sure seems to know how to fill them to HKG, FRA, ICN, PVG, NRT and PEK. I would love to see them stick around until the early 2020's.

If the 747s and 777s stay until 2024, and we get all of the 787s (65) and A-350s (35) delivered, we will have 194 aircraft in those fleets.

Its not likely, but could be fun.

I think it's more likely than you think, I am hoping the days of flying one aisle 757 narrow bodies to some of the world's major business centers are over.