GRU has seen an massive increase in flights over a relative short period. The markt started to become saturated. More expansion to come will cause loads en yields to drop even further. The pull back of Varig out of FRA, LHR and MXP should give the other airlines some air, but most likely just temporary.

For KLM there must happen something because this kind of loads can't be very healthy for the flight's performance. An double overnight patern would be much better because then it would be more attractive for business travelers and it would mean that it would fit better onto connections from the far east like PEK and PVG. I know that such an patern eats in the utilization due to the long ground time at GRU, but maybe can KLM use this as operational buffer as this long ground time could be good to overcome delays from earlier that day.

Maybe an other solution would be to introduce another flight in the direct region like GIG,EZE or maybe another north or central Brazilian destination?

After all it's clear that GRU needs less Y seats and more C and F seats. This means that the 77W isn't really the right plane for that mission, with it's massive Y cabin and a mere 35 C seats. The 77E seems to be better with it's smaller Y cabin and I think looking at loads that are mentioned above the massive Y cabin of the 77W will also cause low yields at some other station where it will be deployed. Because of this I'm closely following the news about the 77W and the rumored config change. I was wondering if anybody knows if it will ever happen? If yes, when it will happen and what the config will be. I in person think that it will be an 42C/363Y config but I still hope for an 49C cabin and some kind of Y+ product.

Looking at the comming summer schedule for the 77W, only MNL will be able to fill the 77W in its current configuration. GRU really won't need it as stated above. JFK and DXB are an different story . Both where mentioned a while ago for C class only flights. Than it doesn't really make sense to me why they deploy the plane with an 35 seat C and the largest Y cabin of the fleet on this destination. What other destinations could warrant the deployment of the 77W?


klm312