Originally Posted by
brettyokom
I would think AA will need at least 3 dedicated 777s to operate ORD/PEK, do they still have some purchase options they could call on or will it continue to be win/lose for the route system in general?
Why would ORD-PEK take more than 2 777s? Since it must be shorter than 16h to fit in the pilot contract, the round trip is no longer than 32h plus turnaround time. There's no way the turnaround time is longer than 8h each way, so they would only need two 777s for daily service. If there was a short enough 777 flight out of ORD that you could use a plane for PEK-ORD-XYZ and one for XYZ-ORD-PEK every day it would only take one 777 over the existing XYZ route, but I don't think there is such a route short enough, and if there is they've probably already done this.