oldchinahand

Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam has confirmed the airline “plans with some ‘urgency’ to retrofit the cabins on its Airbus A330 jets.” he was quoted as saying when interviewed by Bloomberg transport reporter Danny Lee .

The airlines fleet of 42 aircraft has several cabin configurations and varying numbers of seats from 251 to 317 seats. Some aircraft are 3 class and some have only business and economy. It seems that the cabin layouts and configurations are to be updated and rationalised making it easier for aircraft to be transferred between routes.

The fleet is of varying ages but if the few very old (above 20 years and unlikely to rejoin the active fleet) planes that are in storage are disregarded the average age is about 10.7 years with a good number only 8 years old (and with 3 years of that in storage) making the still youngish fleet presumably worthwhile to upgrade.

There is a yet no news from the airline re the design of the refitted cabins but apparently the exercise will start soon.

TomYoung

Twelve of the forty-two A330s are over 20 years old which seems a fair chunk to me.

SLGO

Let’s hope the alignment is to have 28/39 Cirrus J installed (and no PEY), instead of 24/42J recliners.

oldchinahand

There are only 4 of the older frames active in the fleet.
.There are only a total 11 older frames in the fleet according to planespotters .net
Of these 7 are in long term storage with most unlikely to ever rejoin the active fleet. B-HLQ was moved to XMN 4 weeks ago and is probably being returned to the lessor.

Cathay recently sold 2 older stored 777s to Turkmenistan Airlines. Perhaps indicating active disposal plans for some older owned aircraft.

AmD950

Hm might I know what does "Search MENU" means in the topic?
Thanks.

gavinchan180

The new cabins on CX A330s will be getting new business class same as the A321neo and the new economy class same as the A350-1000s, A330s but the IFE screens will not be in 4K, on B-LA* and B-LB* series, C28Y265, C39Y223, C42Y265 will be all reconfigured to C24Y293, lie-flat business class seats will be replaced by regional business class recliners, to increase capacity and reduce staff training, the B-HL* and the B-HY* series will not be retrofitted but they still installs new business and economy seats, on HLP, HLQ, HLR, HLS, HLW will only getting new economy seats, on HLQ and HLS will retain the premium economy seats, and the B-HY* series will not be getting new first class.

percysmith

Well I can’t say no to seat refreshes, if on a 1:1 basis.

First Class referring to former KA’s lie-flat J?

This will be sad if true. But I guess the A350s are the planes with the recliners now, the A330s are being re-designated as a pure regional fleet.

Fly Me To The Moon

I also want to know....

brunos

Bad news.
It seems that the mediocre regional business seats will replace the flat longhaul seat on all A330s. And only 24 J seats.

This is a vicious circle. F&B on regional flights are now very close.The regional J seat is not much better than the Y seat.
Why would I pay 4+ times the Y fare for a 2-3h flight?
And most frequent pax have lounge access anyway by their status.
Then CX notice that they get less J pax and need more Y seats....

PS: I have done 6 regional return trips on A330 in the past few months, J initially and now Y.

percysmith

Because you won't. You'll take it if someone else pays for it No more business class for PwC - unless night flight

Regional J is also a surge fare for people who book late, want a specific flight and lowest flight duration. They can stand for the four hours, be fed nothing and still pay that fare.

And for those who said "who'll pay for this/I'll never pay for CX again", I invite you to name a workable alternative https://m.facebook.com/groups/278873...997848736006/?

brunos

I pay for my own fare (and wifey's).
I was booking J when I get lie-flat seats and the fares that prevailed until recently.
On the routes I fly, I mostly get lie-flat A330s, but when the lie-flat are replaced by regional J seats ...

Remember that a lot of regional J flyers are also connecting J pax from longhaul.

I fail to see how your last point is related to our current topic of updating A330s.

percysmith

Do you have a substitute?

(And if yes, go for that subsitute)

If Mainland-US (or even Mainland-Europe), not much meaningful choice at CX's price points either - most of them are more.

brunos

CX adapts fares to the local market and can be reasonably competitive on Asia (not HK)-Europe and Europe-Asia.
Hence connecting J pax going/coming from/to another Asian country have a decent fare when flying regional J. Not the case for HKG pax.only doing the regional leg.

Again, I am sure that CX is aware of all the points I mentioned, as well as many others, and try to optimize their strategy.
Not complaining as I can adapt to the market conditions.
Being based in HK, I'd rather have a successful CX than one that goes into trouble because of a failed strategy.

TomYoung

I fly regionally in business and pay for my ad my wife's tickets. This is not a lifestyle to which I aspire. I shall be switching many sectors to Tai, Eva, JAL and SQ. As said it will hurt long haul offerings for connecting passengers and those buying local O&D tickets.

percysmith

If you're not spending someone else's money, have the time flexibility and are cost conscious - CX: bye.