Comments by Larry outside of his presentation
 

As most attendees know, you can get a lot of questions you always wanted the answer to by just queing up around Larry and firing away. There were many, many such meetings throughout the eveing. It might be a good idea to consolidate them in this thread. I'll start:

Q. Will we ever see CO back to Australia?
A. No. UA and QF fly 744s and that gives them much flexibility to haul a lot of leisure traffic. The 777s can't do it profitably.

Q. But is not AC starting YYZ-LAX-SYD with 5th Freedom rights?
A. Yes, (and with a smile) it will be interesting to watch.

Q. Does CO really make money in markets like Bristol?
A. Bristol is coming along nicely

Q What about Belfast
A. No real answer but the smile indicated it was doing Really well

Q. Where can we expect to see the 787s
A. Most likey IAH-Asia, BUT there is still a debate going on inside CO. The issue is down time. Think about the 20 or so hours the 777 sits on the gound in HKG

Q. What do you think of the A380?
A. I can think of better ways to spend 15 billion dollars. You can make money with it on the weekend, but what do you do with it during the week?

Larry's comments on EFD
 

This wasn't posted after the first DO but it still is relevant to all of us FTers south of Houston.

Q. What about EFD coming back?

A. "We will spend a dollar to make a dollar ten but we can't spend a dollar to make ninty cents."

This year:

Q. What about EFD coming back?

A. Still don't think that it will work out even with the large military staff coming to EFD. :(

EFD is dead, move on ....
 

I LOVED flying out of EFD, though in all honesty it would have been faster (most of the time) to just drive up to the big airport (at least on the flights that I connected on, security and all).

I'm sure CO lost some fliers because of this, but this time I gotta agree, if it's losing money, move on ....

Now about that hub penalty :rolleyes:

Oh ya, most flier just suck it up, so note to self ....

EmailKid

Anyone else have any aside Q&A's they got out of Larry. I just shook his hand and gushed when I met him :D

I dont think Larry likes me :p so I refrain from asking him question; everyone else though I picked thier brains... my top idea to Mark B. was putting in pay for bathrooms in coach :D

-Vincent

Q: Where do you see the fleet over the next 10 years - ie any 747-800 plans, eventual replacement of the 757's to Europe, Boeing's replacement for the 777, new material airplanes (like the 787) for 737 etc?
A:
- 747-800: no plans - (likely never)

- Replace 757's to Europe: For the smaller markets - the 757-200 are in their for the long term. No return of the 757-200 to domestic market, with a larger 787 fleet. The 757 engines are too powerful and consume too much fuel to fly domestically (the 757 can almost fly straight up).

- Boeing's replacement for the 777 is a stretch version of the 787.

- Lighter, new material airplanes: Eventually the 737 will go that way. But for now CO will start with a smaller fleet of 787's and evaluate the maintenance costs and performance of the newer material aircraft.

Question:Will you ever update the Buiz First to a lie flat bed like BA and Virgin
Answer: It takes up more room and we would have less seats to sell

And of course, my question: more flights to Tel Aviv?
- Answer: They love TLV, TLV makes $$$$, and the director of the TLV operation hounds them even more than I do about it... but they don't have any extra 777 time to do it, but if they had more widebody metal, it is a top priority :)

I think I was standing next to you when you asked Jeff. :D

Also, unfortunately, don't look for any more new European cities this year (I know this was covered in the regular Q & A, but I reconfirmed it with Larry in person, in a more detailed, if brief, discussion of international expansion).

I actually had a 5-10 min. talk with Larry after the presentation regarding leadership, work-life balance, etc... found him to be a very down to earth person and easy to talk to... Thanks Larry for the advice!!

I don't know anything about the aircraft market, but if there's a profitable route waiting for a 777 to fill it, what's CO's reason for not buying/leasing a 777 and doing the route? Enlighten me.

There likely are not any of CO's version of the 777 (the 777-200ER) available for lease that has the same engines etc. What is available is likely the older non-ER version in a different configuration. CO has on order 2 more 777-200ER's for delivery in 2007 to add to its existing fleet of 18 777's.

CO opt'ed for the 777-200ER for these additional 2 (rather than a newer longer range version - the 777-200LR) for fleet commonality.

there are no available 777's.

Impossible ;)