Originally Posted by
Javan69
Couldn't UA cut down on hub-hub frequency and substitute bigger planes - i.e., 1 747 for 2 320s SFO-IAD? Granted the 320 has a bit less than 1/2 the capacity of a 747, so 2 don't = 1, but it's close and you cut down on a bunch of crew since you don't have 2 full iterations. I'm at 60k with DEQM and with no flights booked the rest of the year, 1K's going to be tough.
I'm not going to pretend to have any idea of the actual numbers involved, but my understanding is that the 747s are so much less fuel efficient than the 320s, that the increase in fuel costs would more than cancel out the savings involved on crew/gate/ramp/etc. expenses.