Originally Posted by QRC3288

It's certainly interesting.

One also must consider average frequency and total seats per day to a destination. While CX flies to many European cities once daily, LHR has 5x, SFO, YVR, YYZ and LAX 2-3x, and most Australian ports 2-4x daily. It's the total seats per day that count.

CX is definitely betting big on PEY with the 77J. We will have to see the layout of 777X to appreciate where exactly the 77J fits in to the longer term portfolio. My guess is the CX 777X will be very premium heavy, with a lot of PEY and J (and F of course), at expense of Y. Basically replacing the role of the 77A.

That UA special plane is an extremely small subset of the fleet. And not coincidence it will fly, in part at least, on UAs longest missions. It's also worth pointing out that Delta coming to HKG on the A359 will be weight restricted towards Asia. Just saying there are more considerations than meets the eyes with these configuration logics. Emirates, another example, is very late to the game, but finally gave in and offered PEY some years back, after for a decade saying they'd never do it.

Lastly, the CX 77A was a special plane but not too versatile. It's one thing if this premium heavy config is a subfleet of your long-haul capacity. It's another if it's basically all of your long-haul capacity, as it was eaely days with the original 77A before the A350s arrived. At least in CX, the trend very quickly was to diversify and offer a less premium heavy version of the 77W (77K). And of course, neither of CXs A350s offer F. The A359 in particular gives CX a lot of flexibility. As a side, I think the 35J config (a350-1000) provides CX less flexibility than they desired, in part because the J cabin is too large and the PEY cabin too small all else considered. But the positions of doors 1 and 2 make any mix shift from J to PEY class a harder consideration. Overall I think this configuration rigidity is a key factor (when overlayed with the different cost structures of the planes) behind why the A359 has been the preferred bird for CXs economics, and the A35K has been a little bit disappointing.

On another note, if (when??) CX reconfigures the A350s with a new J product, I wouldn't be surprised to see see one of two outcomes. Either A) the 35K get a larger PEY with possibly a mini-cabin forward of door 2, and a reduction in J capacity, so less premium. Or B) go more premium with the 35K and have it be a four class plane, something its competitors have done and a way to diversify the economics, but so far CX hasnt shown a willingness to do because their ultra premium configs are on the 77Ws already. In its current positioning, the CX 35J is just a little bit inferior economics wise.

My bet is CX is positioning the fleet now so that in a year or two when the 77X finally arrives, that will be the super premium heavy config. And the rest of the fleet provides more flexibility.