Originally Posted by
east_west
UA is operating 78J on SFO-AKL, LAX-PVG, and IAD-PEK, which are comparable to SFO-TPE. Not sure about LAX-TPE. Probably everything else in the BR NA network wouldn't work.
Premium Economy market for US is too good for EVA to drop.
The only route in the entire North America network they have problem with selling Premium Economy is Vancouver.
Both 789 and 78K have no configurations of Premium Economy in the fleet so I doubt it will make it to any existing US routes.
Originally Posted by
bzcat
A lot of Asian airlines are interested in 737 MAX10 which is not affected by the grounding and doesn't have the problematic stall prevention system. First delivery for MAX10 is mid 2020 I believe. But BR works the belly cargo hold pretty hard so I think they will stick with A321 NEO.
Ordinary people don't understand the differences between a MAX9 and MAX10, but they do know MAX is bad. Highly doubt EVA will make any move for MAX at this stage.
Originally Posted by
bzcat
The traffic right situation with Germany is really sticky... basically, each side is only allowed one airline and one airport. The Taiwan side rights are assigned to CI which use FRA. If Germany grants BR a waiver or special exemption to essentially use LH's unused right to service between the two countries, it may or may not lift the one airport rule. So I think BR has been strategically targeting MUC to increase the odds that its request will be granted.
I don't see Germany softening it's stance. Lufthansa needs to fly TPE first if we want to see any progress.
Originally Posted by
bzcat
789 would have been ideal plane for BR to launch BOS/DFW/IAH but for whatever reason, it only ordered 4 of them... I think they are kind of stuck with the 77W to North America for the foreseeable future so they won't add these new stations. They will just keep bulking up existing stations by filling out less than daily frequencies. That's why you see them going 2x daily in SEA and daily in ORD.
I am not so sure about that. I think BR is actually doing well in IAH even with the 77W. It's a long flight and the added Premium Economy seats are doing well there.
I think the study needs to be done on whether starting DFW will cannibal the current operation at IAH.
As for BOS, the 77W may be too big but if EVA can make ORD work with 77W 5 weekly I think they can make BOS work with 77W 5 weekly. 789 is an ideal option but it may not make it till BR is stable with the VIE loads. They need to be able to make VIE work with 78K before freeing up the 789.
Originally Posted by
bzcat
The big question for me is when the older 9 abreast Y 77W lease expires, will BR reduce LAX and replace it with 10 abreast 77W? Seems like they really like the 3x daily right now but doing 3x 10 abreast 77W maybe overkill, even for a large market like TPE-LAX. If BR wants to maintain 3x daily to LAX, it may have to use a 789 in the mix with 2x 10 abreast 77W. But again, not enough 789.
20~30 extra seats are not going to be overkill. The problem for LAX is that it will lose it's competitive advantage of 3-3-3 9 seat abreast advantage in comparison to CI's 3-4-3. Passengers in the cattle cabin will opt for the best options they can get and whoever is cheaper with better products will win in this case (BR is cheaper and offers 9 abreast now). CI is returning LAX with 3 weekly CI 6/5 winter and they are going to start mixing the 359 in the rotation where BR does not have the option of doing so.