Originally Posted by
PVDtoDEL
If AI finds a route in which more than 18 people are willing to pay for the J product daily, that route can be upgraded to the 777 with more capacity. If AI finds so many routes in which more than 18 people are willing to pay for J that the 777 fleet isn't enough, then AI will surely be able to afford reconfiguring a row or two
Good point, the AI 777-200LR in particular has a similar number of seats to the 787s that are coming, just more in F and J.
Originally Posted by
PVDtoDEL
This is a great point which is overlooked far too often.
Where AI can use the 787 most effectively as an A310 replacement is East Asia (NRT, ICN, KIX, PEK, CAN, PVG, HKG) and Southeast Asia (KUL, SGN, MNL).
The other wild card for usage is North Africa, and the western-most part of the Middle East. Routes like IST, CAI, NBO, AMM and TLV are outside A320 range but would be well served by 787. There are also opportunities in Central Asia/CIS, with Russia, Kazakhastan, and Tajikistan both being potentially commercially viable (low competition, high yielding if AI can get the loads). Moscow and Almaty are potential destinations which are especially notable.
One thing you can notice in common about all the routes mentioned above is that none are particularly premium-heavy. And considering that AI would probably not be able to capture the premium market even if it was there, there is little purpose of not putting in Y instead.
I agree completely with the effective replacements.
What about Western Europe. MAN/BHX serve very large Indian expat communities and strong business links yet no direct (scheduled) flights to India. Most of the QR and over half of the EK and EY passengers at certain times of the year are just connecting to India (I say this from experience, I have no statistics). Most of them would travel in Y, and 777s may be too large. There is large demand there, much more than there is in IST, NBO, TLV and the CIS. Admittedly there is much more competition from connecting flights however.