Originally Posted by
mduell
I wonder what happens to the 788 fleet in the medium term. Perhaps they become a high-J fleet for select (LHR, etc) markets, especially as the 763s finally retire. Although not enough to even handle that, maybe they pick up some more on the secondary market when that time comes.
The 788 has very high CASM which is why UA creatively stuffed the plane with as many seats as possible while not falling back on the mistake AA made with selling too few seats in J. Since it is a small fleet, it has a niche for routes that sell out in the back easily but not so much upfront, i.e. IAD-West Africa.
I am sceptical UA will make any changes to the 788 in the medium term. Those 763s are fully paid for. Given CASM, think future High J aircraft will be 789s for longhaul and ultra longhaul flying with 78Js on shorter premium TATL flying.