After the announcement of DTW-ICN going to 747 in August, I am wondering how DL is going to utilize their 16 747's...
Right now it's already spread pretty thin..
13 birds are required to maintain the schedule:
- 7 birds for arrivals/departures in NRT (ATL, JFK, DTW, BKK, TPE, MNL, HNL)
- 1 bird overnighting in ATL
- 2 birds for JFK-TLV
- 2 birds for DTW-NGO-MNL-NGO-DTW
- 1 bird for HNL-KIX
DL is going to need 2 additional birds for DTW-ICN-DTW, bringing the total to 15/16.
Assuming the spare bird stays at NRT, this means any maintenance schedule must be coordinated to allow the spare bird to reposition, leaving the entire fleet without spares for IRROPS! Does anyone else think this is NUTS?
Looking at the current routes for post DTW-ICN change, all still show 747.
What do you think? Will any routes lose the 747 eventually? The obvious candidates are NRT-BKK and HNL-KIX since they are independent from other routes..
Am I missing something?