Originally Posted by
EWR764
SFO-ICN was a 777 for some time before the 747 fleet was consolidated at SFO, and while it also operated with a 747 at other points in the relatively recent past before that, it suggests to me that United does not necessarily need the high capacity of a 747 to make the route economical. The fact that a market can generate a high volume of traffic does not make it axiomatic that a carrier must deploy its highest gauge on the route to turn a profit.
Not to argue whether or not the ICN route is generating enough profit or not, but when UA was running the 777 on SFO-ICN, they also had a 777 on the NRT-ICN route as well. This went on for quite a while, as I was on both routes several times a year.