Originally Posted by
ACVBear
and count me as one who thinks the A319/320 are more comfortable than the 737s.
regardless we don't know why they did this but I hope there is a reason behind it more so than just that is how Continental used to do things so that is how the new airline does things.
Does, with the added evidence of everything else, seem to further point to this just being continental...
Although I have next-to-no experience in fleet maintenance, I would bet the official reason is similar to the same official reason CO has been giving over the years...that standardizing the fleet helps lower costs tremendously (and have the tag-on effect of helping reduce MX delays through cross-training). Whether that argument holds water in this scenario I have no clue.
What I will provide is this...as of YE2011 here is the fleet mix for the combined airline:
Boeing: 549 aircraft (78%)
Airbus: 152 aircraft (22%)
A320-200: 97 aircraft
A319-100: 55 aircraft
73x: 238 aircraft