Originally Posted by
TomYoung
While on the subject of 777-300s I wonder what CX intends to do with them. They said that they are buying 30 A330-900s to replace the 20 year old A330-300s and for some expansion [of long haul routes]. They have 17 777-300s, each capable of carrying 440 PAX and whenever I fly one to or from MNL or BKK they are almost full. That is equivalent to some 24 A330s, a not insignificant number. And they are already the essentially oldest birds in the flock. Does anyone have any idea of what CX plans to do. Keep them until they are 50 years? If so, why not put Cirrus or Aria seats in them and use a few to serve Indian routes to free up long haul frames for long haul business? I have nothing against the planes per se, just the terrible J seating with its discomfort and lack of privacy.
CX has 21 779s on order too. I assume that will allow an upgauge in long-haul capacity whilst letting the older 77W replace the very-old 773s.
They can remove the PEY cabin and put in Y seats and they should get close to a maybe a 30-40 seat reduction (whilst having Aria seats and keeping the J capacity).
BKK might be very full but I've spoken to a few IFMs and they said there's a lot of ID pax on the route. I assume availability will drop once those 773s get replaced with something else.