Originally Posted by
bzcat
That's a lot of large widebodies coming to CI.
Existing 16x A333
Existing 15x A359
Existing 10x 77W
Total 41x
~~~
Existing 15x A359
New 18x 789 (will replace existing 16x A333)
New 6x 781
New 10x A351 (to replace 10x 77W eventually)
New 10x 779
Total 59x
So they are planning to add 18 new widebodies at the end of current replacement cycle.
While it may be a joke to say 779s are replacements for 35Ks, I won't be surprised by the time they receive the 779s the 359s are heading out of the system. These orders they make for Boeing are speculative at best cause no one knows when will they be ready for service and CI is not launch customer.
2 781s are to sit at Songshan and at least 1 will sit at KHH.
Long haul 779s are likely only usable on bilateral restricted destinations (LHR, YVR) or places where it's better to operate a larger aircraft instead of two smaller ones (LAX, SFO) and places for no payload restrictions (JFK).