Originally Posted by
BApilotinsider
The 744 retirements have been slowed slightly, it allows a bit of flex to cover last minute tech/schedule issues.
The 744 fleet will reduce to 39 hulls in 2015/16 and then stay stable for a while.
Yes - that does not surprise me at all. I have sort of been getting that sense of things that they want a bit more flexibility in the fleet and of course there is a bit of growth going on with some routes now getting extra frequencies so that will absorb a bit of that excess capacity.
What is surprising though is that BA is not getting rid of the whole fleet a bit faster as I think that as we go forward and we get more new birds in the fleet the 747-400 will become a gallon guzzling luxury that BA cannot afford. Also I suspect that the 787-9 and 10 will be far more fuel efficient than the 772's so will be interesting to see what happens there too!
FD.