Originally Posted by
coolfish1103
I think they are already re-fitting the aircrafts since they will be taking the 747 out from the Honolulu and Amsterdam starting April 1st.
The other day I was drawing a layout plan for this in excel and I hope they will take SQ's aircraft style (1-2-1 Business) into consideration... I don't mind they charge more... They can charge 12k for F, 5k for D, and avg 1.1k for the E (Routes TPE/LAX) and yields more profits cause the number of luggages will decrease due to the number of paxs allowed per flight.
Here it is:
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1540/b74401ph8.jpg
TPE-BKK-AMS v.v. is still oprated by B747-400. Only CI018/017 (NRT/HNL) and 106/107 (NRT) will be switched from 744 to 330/340 because the two oldest 744 (B-18273/18275) will retire soon.
I would like to say the layout you draw is fantastic. ^ However, the problem is what kinds of passengers CI would like to target. As CI's former chairman Phillipe Wei said, China Airlines is a "semi-budget" carrier. In other words, CI now prefer to carry passengers from Vietnam, India, and Phillippine (VIP
), who usually fly economy class. Therefore, CI won't reduce the capacity of economy class. (That's why CI cannot make money!) The 2-4-2 coach class on 744s is just a dream (even CX/SQ won't do that.).
Besides, the market of First/Business Class from and to Taiwan is not really "fancy." When SQ introduced B777-300ER to TPE-LAX, SQ still sells almost the same F/J prices as CI in Taiwan. Now, SQ even turns back to B777-200ER.
As I told before, CI never want to be a "top" and "leading" brand because its target competitor is EVA not Cathay or Singapore. Also, some Taiwanese even don't want to pay such high price to fly J class. I guess that's why CI don't introduce lie-flat bed seat when others have done.
The layout you draw also have some problems of the scale. There is no chance you can place over five rows in 744's zone A except the style of CX/NZ/VS business class.