BoeingBoy

Could be but I'd have to look through the trips for that specific one to find out. I'd think that the extra flying R/T from PHL might make a 3rd pilot necessary and from CLT it shouldn't be a problem, though.

Jim

LM225

I was going to update on this earlier, but I forgot until you responded to me on the upgrades thread

On my flight, 3D was blocked all the way up through check-in. In fact, one family of five got upgraded at the last minute (nearly empty F cabin), and when the dad sat down in 3D, the FA asked him to move over a seat, though I couldn't hear what she said.

Then, about 15 minutes into the flight, a pilot came out of the cockpit, sat down in 3D, and proceeded to take a nap.

LM225

Another update: 3D was used for crew rest again on yesterday's SXM-CLT. I asked the FA, and she said that it's almost always a crew rest seat for that route, as the total flight time for the crew working that day will be > 8 hours.

PHL

This makes sense given that the same crew typically flies down and back the same day. Seems like a desirable trip to bid on since you knock out a lot of hours, and still sleep in your own bed each night.

LM225

Yep, pretty much exactly what the FA said ("it's a long day, but at least I get to go home every night").

Fanjet

How many of these US-east 757s are out there now? I know the combined count is 24. I'm hoping that these birds will stay in the new airline (but with the intl J seats AA uses on the 757s). Both airlines use the RR engines. And the door configuration on US's 757s are better for international flying, than the overwing exit ones IMO. There's less need to compete with the FAs for aisle access when going to use the lavatory.

geo1005

I can't find it now, but there was a post by a US employee speculating that the new A332s that US is getting would be placed on some of the current 767 routes and the 767s would replace the (very old in many cases) 757s flying international. The 757s would then be re-configed for domestic use until retired.

phlwookie

Fortunately, most of the 757s - 24 IIRC - flying for US were delivered in 1994 or newer; some of the ex-ATA aircraft are as new as 2000. The old ex-Eastern aircraft dating to the early to mid-1980s have been retired as have the former Republic/NW planes that wound up with HP from the same time.

The current and former 757 fleet list is here: http://www.airfleets.net/flottecie/U...story-b757.htm Click on the aircraft registration or line number to see delivery dates and former registrations and/or operators. Not sure whether all the ex-HP 757s are listed there, but the ex-US East list looks pretty complete.

BoeingBoy

Deleted by me - wrong thread.

Jim

Fanjet

The one bird that needs its wings clipped is the 762, not the 757. The fuel costs of one of those versus a 757 is too much of a disadvantage. And with JFK now entering the picture, the 757's range is well-suited for a lot of western European destinations from there.

BoeingBoy

Unless they replace the 762 with an A332 on certain routes, range is an issue for the 757. The 767 has the 2nd longest range in the US fleet - enough for Italy/Greece which the 757's don't. The 757's are all tied up with the European cities that they can reach during the busy season and moving them to JFK wouldn't add all of current 767 European cities. AA's 763's may be suitable replacements - I just don't know enough about them to say for sure.

Jim

Fanjet

They have more of them than all of US's widebodies combined, and then some. Once the reservation systems are combined, I think we will see AA operated flights out of PHL and CLT to Europe, and US flights operated out of JFK to Europe. An AA 763 has greater range than a US 762. I believe they were operating some West Coast-CDG/LHR flights with them last decade. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last summer a US 762 will be serving Europe. Don't forget that new 332s are being delivered this year.

BoeingBoy

And next, but not enough to replace all the US 762's. As I recall off the top of my head, there are 8 A332's this year and next to complete the order while there are 10 762's. That's why I mentioned the AA 763's as potential replacements, although with the same obvious capacity increase as the A332's.

I think most would agree that the merger is likely to be approved, by the creditors and judge then with at most what could be called minor carve-outs by the regulators (both U.S. and EU). So there will be no shortage of different aircraft types to juggle among current and future international routes as well as mainland to/from Hawaii. Or there will be when the AA/US seniority is finalized (which drags in the East/West seniority fight).

Jim

Fanjet

Don't forget that AA is also getting widebodies delivered (77Ws). And a lot of domestic routes see 763s on them. They have enough to cover any gap in US's service if the 762s are retired, if there would be a gap. I know that US pulled out of ARN and BHX, and when US switches over to OW and leaves Star, which I predict will happen early next year, there won't be 4 flights a day to FRA. So the most likely routes to remain next year needing a widebody would be:

PHL: TLV, ATH, MXP, FCO, VCE, BCN, MAD, CDG, FRA, MUC, ZHR, LHR, MAN.
CLT: LHR, FRA, MAD, CDG, GIG, GRU.

It seems that 15 332s and 9 333s could cover that with one or two to spare. And the flights to OSL, DUB, AMS, BRU, SNN, LIS, and GLA are reacheable with a 757. There's even more room to work with if AA picks up a few of these runs, and US picks up some JFK runs with 757s.

BoeingBoy

It would, although with the gain in capacity I mentioned earlier. It remains to be seen how much change will occur in hub to/from Europe flying, especially in PHL and CLT, but adding roughly 50-100 seats per departure is a lot of extra seats to fill for current US TATL using the 767's. And that's true whether you replace the US 762's with anything US or AA has.

As you illustrate, and I said, the 757's are mainly U.S. to/from northern/northwestern Europe and as such aren't true 767 replacements due to less range. So there isn't an option of using the 757 to all the places the 767 currently flies without using bigger aircraft - either the A330's of US or the 763's of AA.

In other words, the US 762's fill a niche that can't be directly filled by the merged fleet. If some of the current US TATL flights won't support significantly bigger planes profitably, those routes either get dropped or some 762's stay around. It's a lot easier to say "Just use a newer, bigger plane" than it is to make it all profitable.

Jim