Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
What does that mean though for the COI fleet? Less planes, less flights? Switching of COI destinations to non-COI aircraft?
Originally Posted by
Digicola
I hope this means the end of the COI 77W at CDG. Makes more sense from a fleet perspective.
If you remember what was already announced just before Covid and that was discussed in the retrofit thread, we already knew that 2 COI planes would be retrofitted with P seats. So I think this is still this plan that we see and the only new part is a confirmation that P will be kept and that the new planes with P will come from the rest of the B77W fleet (and not from the A350). 2 less COI B77W will not change much which destinations will see them or not.
Digicola : it certainly doesn’t mean the end of the COI fleet at CDG. Even if we don’t like (or I should rather say hate) this configuration, it makes a lot of sense for AF to have it as it is very well adapted to some markets. Of course, this was pre-covid. Who knows what it will be in post-Covid.
Originally Posted by
San Gottardo
Since we are at the speculation game, here are some thoughts. Obviously this is a view for a time post-Covid
- High premium routes, with potential to see 8P more often than not: JFK, LAX, SFO, TYO, SIN, PVG, PEK. In Winter during vacation time also MIA.
- Less premium, but warrants P: GRU, IAD, IAH, ABJ, LDA, to a lesser extent also BOS, MIA during other times
- Inbetween high premium and less premium: MEX, HKG, DXB
- Cities I am surprised that they don't get P on a regular basis: ATL, DEL, ICN
- Historic P destinations with doubtful potential: BEY
- Cities I would love to have added to the P network, but alas are unlikely: GIG, EZE, ORD, MLE, YUL, YVR, SEA, PTY, MRU
I agree with most of your list. Just a few comments:
- IAD is very premium heavy for AF. Lot of French, other EU and Africa diplomatic traffic + official international organisms trips (DSK, C. Lagarde were very frequent P pax on those flights when they were working at IMF). So IAD should be part of your 1st list IMHO.
- JNB is not in your list. I would put it in the 2nd or 3rd category. Every time I flew to/from JNB whatever it was with A380 or B77W, J was always full and P always had a significant load. But it is certainly less premium than your 1st category.
- ICN : I have been very surprised when they stopped P to ICN. Clearly some potential there.
- EZE : some potential also (I have flown there in P with a full 8 seats load in P), but as long as Argentina economy will be in the toilet, we won’t see it back