Originally Posted by adam.smith

Dorian, I'm confused. WS is taking delivery of 767-300ERs. Rouge flies 767-300ERs, so no savings there on plane cost/fuel burn. If it wants to match like-for-like, AC can just throw Rouge 763s up against WS, like it's doing on YYC-LGW.

Fuel is the biggest single expense for airlines, even with lower oil prices. It's a much larger expense than aircraft rent/depreciation.

So it's quite possible that a 787 is competitive with a 767 because the higher purchase price (which will be amortised over many years of remaining life, whereas the 767s don't have much left in them) will be offset by lower fuel burn.

I would also guess that the maintenance expense starts to pile up on these old 767s as things just start to wear out and fall apart.

So I don't necessarily see WS having much of a cost advantage over AC just because of old, cheap 763s.

Also, for what it's worth, the 763 doesn't have the range to do YVR-SYD without a stop (roughly: YVR-SYD 12,500 km, 763 range 11,000 km).