Originally Posted by
13901
For starters, any plane that's parked somewhere will have issues. They are not designed to be sat there idly for years. Every airline that parked its planes and then brought them back, unless they did a strip and rebuild in the meantime, is having reliability issues. Modern airliners are designed to be used for 10, 12, 14 hours a day or to be in maintenance.
Then, the idea to take a plane with a high pressure turbine at limits (or beyond) and flying it to a far-flung destination is too risky. And as others have said, it's better to have them near BA facilities.
Personally, what makes the most sense is to have them near CWL and, once Rolls Royce magics an engine, then to strip them, retrofit the new interiors, and fly them out back onto the line.
I want to highlight that this isn't BA being cheap, BA is contracted to have a double-figure of extra engines available, including one or two on standby at LHR. They're now 4 shipsets down. That'd give an idea of the dimensions of the issue.
I totally believe all of what you say. It all seems so very unfortunate for BA, first the seat supplier slowing down progress and now the engine supplier stopping the new business class seats being fitted. It appears that there will still be a good representation of OCW as the seat approaches its twentieth anniversary 🎂
As the CS refit is moribund for the meantime, and profits at record levels, I am wondering what resolutions BA could make for the ongoing presence of OCW, should it want to of course:
Wetleases - QF has wetleased very good aircraft from AY - could BA do the same?
IAG orders - the first A321XLR was originally intended for EI but was diverted to IB. Could BA not similarly divert orders to BA?
Equipment change - AA, QF, QR all allow flight changes without penalty, why not BA?
Soft product - improve J soft product to include a starter on late night flights, to bring the service standard up to WT+ level
Anything else BA can do to manage the impact on the customer?