brunos

You raise an interesting question. Increasing the density is a question of economics and timing.
Reducing the seat pitch (say from 34 as in the good old days) leads to complaints but may be less "visible" than adding a seat to a row of nine. Being among the first airline to do it can get a lot of flacks from customers. EK was kind of a new entrant with a business model based on low price in Y. BA was regarded as a top quality airline in all classes. First one (give or take one) to introduce solo flat bed in F and flat bed in J. Nowadays most pax in the know expect airlines to move to 10 abreast on 777 so it would attract less ill feeling from BA pax.
And their image in all classes is not what it used to be.
With the introduction of PE economics and competition probably call for a densification of Y.

KLflyerRalph

First destination will be CAI on 10 January. On 7 and 8 January there also will be special welcoming flights. Sales for this start early December.

irishguy28

So that's why KL were forced to stop flying there

San Gottardo

Are there some confirmed information already on which routes the B787 will be deployed in the following months? The fleet will grow over time and CAI is probably just a training destination (short rotations, gives more crews more takeoffs and landings).

Here is secretely hoping for ORD, which is a choice of horror right now. AA or dreaful UA or AF on an A332 with NEV....

joyu12

SFO would be very nice as well, as it's between dreadful UA or AF on a NEV 777 except in the summer months...

LY777

UA Will operate 788s on the SFO-CDG flight

Goldorak

I believe ORD is indeed a serious candidate.

maybe in winter, but for the summer season, the 789 is clearly not enough capacity for AF to SFO.

Overall, I believe the current A343 routes are the best candidates for a replacement by the B789 (e.g. DTW, MSP, etc) because they are phased out. BOS would be a good candidate too now that the DL flight is operated year round. I think BOG and SXM will be the last A343 destinations.

CyBeR

The KL J seats in their 787 are different from the other New WBC for the stated reason of "commonality with AF" so that seems extremely likely.

vxflyer

I was hoping they were canceling all their 787 orders.

Mirk

Agreed. For those of us who only gets to fly Y these 787s are a disaster :/

I don't like that AF/KL invested so heavily in the 777/787, seat width is horrible.

Goldorak

Now announced on routesonline. Horrible timing of the return flight
http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...t-in-jan-2017/

Ditto

Yep, but the arrival time to CDG makes it possible to connect to many European cities and arrive there before 9/10am

They have similar arrival timings out of TLV, few years ago they moved an afternoon flight to 1am.

Of course with a flat bad it is not as bad as with a 320...

joyu12

Of course, i think as long as SFO gets BEST seats on a consistent basis (and an A380 in the summer) i would be satisfied.

Goldorak

As per an AF information just released, it seems that the 1st flight to CAI will be on Jan 9 (but I didn't check that doing a dummy booking). The 1st plane will be delivered on Dec 2. A 2nd plane will be delivered in April and will be used from May 1st on CDG-YUL (AF344/345) ^.
Also there will be a daily rotation CDG-LHR from Feb 6 to march 25 (except wednesdays). More info here about the LHR service.
http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/...t=Air%20France

Mirk

Is there a precedent in how PE seats are attributed when a widebody is used on short/medium haul ?