Originally Posted by
Anglo Large Clawed Otter
I believe a majority of them are already deployed internationally. The thing is, given their range, these aircraft will not utilize an entire 24hour time cycle in the air on their *relatively* short trips to Europe (side-trips to Goose-Bay notwithstanding).
I'm not entirely certain, but flights like IAH-AMS/EZE block out at almost 24 hours for a gate-to-gate roundtrip (including ground time). I would not be surprised to learn that specific aircraft are dedicated to these routes, and would thus not rotate through the route network.
OTOH, the 757-200s have enough dead-time when they get back to a hub to be sent out on shuttle missions to places like FLL & MSY. I don't think that 757-200s will be a complete rarity on domestic flights, but will simply be confined to certain routes.
The IAH flights make sense, but I'd tend to think the EWR based 752s provide too much extra time. Between 8 hours out and 9 back, the plane is only in the states from 1:20-6:45 on the CGN route. Since that is only 5 hours, I don't really see how the AC could be used for anything much more than BOS, WAS, et al. that are close enough for that quick of a turnaround (and not for longer FLL and MSY). Perhaps other routes are shorter and allow the MSY and FLL use for the AC?