Originally Posted by
EdmFlyBoi
Listened to this as well. I am assuming based on what I heard that the Max will move to 12J from 16J. I find this super interesting in light of the increase in premium demand and the perception that J cabins are quite full. The aircraft will deployed on leisure routes (I am assuming based on its range versus the 32XCEO) but what will be used to heavier premium demand markets. I just find this a bit of an odd strategy if the increase in premium demand is true (and maybe it isn't).
The whole thing is somewhat strange. The revised rouge will be very small within the context of AC as a whole. It has been since the 763s were hastily disposed of during COVID, but growing or eliminating it seemed like more sensible and likely outcomes.
With the pilots all in one pool, the only cost advantage is a small savings on FA wages, against the cost of a separate AOC and whatever costs there are in maintaining some sort of brand identity. Meanwhile, WS has eliminated the Swoop brand - which was never very big (I think 16 aircraft at its peak) and not long established - as well as Sunwing, which was much larger and had a lot more of a defined identity. They're in the process of reconfiguring all of their ex-LCC aircraft (Swoop, Sunwing, and Lynx) to a J12 Y168 configuration.
It doesn't appear there's any intention to substantially differentiate the rouge product, it will just have a slightly lower ratio of J seats than the other narrowbodies. So why keep it? If they just want an aircraft with a configuration optimized for a certain subset of routes, why not just do that at mainline, just as there are two different configs of 77W?