Boeing looking at stretched 787 model

The limitations of the 757 are quite applicable to this discussion. Where you currently lack range but don't also need the added capacity of a 767 or 777, you have an opportunity for a 787.

The only Asia route with extensive layover is HKG. And a semi-long one on one of the TLVs. DEL, PEK, NRT are all turned around immediately.

Great! Are they going to use YYR for that, too?? I'm just waiting for the official announcement about the new hub and the multitude of PCs there will be!
On a more serious note, that sounds pretty great. Only question is where would CO fly in Asia for new routes? Aren't China and Japan routes limited? I haven't heard anything of CO wanting to operate a SIN flight. Delhi seems to justify the 777 as is.
So, where would they go? any speculation? Dhaka? Bangkok? Seoul? Sinapore?
Does CO have any interest in developing Africa too?

Houston has large Taiwanese and Vietnamese communities. CO should consider operating their own flights to TPE. Right now, CI is doing IAH-SEA-TPE 4 times a week, and I know some Taiwanese will prefer a CO or BR operated flight instead.

I don't know much about the rights issue, but they can then extend their HKG (or as I proposed, a TPE flight) to SGN; like what UA is doing. Limited competition, unlike SIN or BKK. And UA and NW's TPE flights often seem like orphans, and everybody is concentrating more on getting rights to China instead.

And of course, they really need to strike a broad codeshare agreement with KE and operate into ICN, and for passengers to connect to other Chinese cities.

While this is technically true, it is common sense that if a flight to PEK takes 13-14 hours, then 2 hour restocking, you need more than one plane (unless, of course, the new 787s can warp time)

Yes, these planes are on a 'race track that sees the plane comming to NRT from EWR go on to IAH (and vice versa), and then maybe on to Europe.

Still, using the 787s for Asia get less utilization out of them (time in the air flying passengers) than if they are used IAH-Europe-IAH. Just my opinion.

Utilization is not how many trips a plane makes a day. It's how many hours it's in the air. The question with these long Asian routes is whether the fare can be high enough to justify the long hours in the air and sometimes on the ground.

Like I said, CO's flights to Asia has high utilization, except for HKG. Unlike NW and UA which leave a dozen of 747s and 777s sitting in HKG, BKK, SIN, SGN, TPE, etc every night. Or South American flights that have the planes sit there for most of the day.

But really. Who cares? It's about how much money can each plane makes for the company. Of course, the best are routes that are short, high utilization, and full of high-yield customers. That's why EWR-TLV is so lucrative.

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Edit: BTW, you're absolutely correct that CO can use the planes after coming back from a long Asian trips to other destination. So, one should simply calculate the overall utilization for a whole fleet. And that's also why CO is wise to keep all its 777 in the same configuration.

An example of very poor utilization is Air Canada's A345 for YYZ-HKG. Two planes for just one daily flight each way. But that's not the case with CO's operation.

There is also cargo to consider, which helps many of the routes. That being said, if you're looking for high-yield routes with short trips and high utilization, I'd say NYC-DCA is the best example. Even with the enormous frequency of flights running on the route, most of the tickets are sold at or vey close to full fare, and the flights are generally very full as well.

NYC-DCA? I've looked a bit recently at these city pairs and if purchased ahead, it could be had for $78, with $100 low on an advance (3-5 day) purchase. Sure, it is quick, but seats need to sell at a bit more than that to allow for all the time lost with each turnaround. Maybe I just haven't seen anything with high fares because I was snooping around for myself and didn't really check last minute or other traditionally expensive fare types.

You can get DCA-NYC on the cheap for weekends and in advance, especially with a Saturday night stay. On the other hand, the walk-up fare and non-leisure travel dates goes for $650-700 r/t. There is a LOT of business traffic on those fares.

CO just announced they are buying five more 787-9s and converting 12 of their 787-8 orders to 787-9s.

Looks like some international traffic expansion for CO...

This means CO will have 8 787-8s and 17 787-9s. That's almost as many 772ER they have currently. Just think about the possibilities. ^ ^

Press release here:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....icle&ID=972737

CLE-CDG is already planned. Can CLE-AMS, CLE-FCO, CLE-HNL, or CLE-TLV be far behind?

Is that correct? I thought that one of CO's two new 777's has been delivered.

Anyways, good to hear CO increasing their dreamliner order ^

Ship #19 just made it first flight a few days ago, and its delivery flight will be the March of Dimes auction one on 3/19 (?).

CO plans to phase out the less efficient 762 and 764 first. Very long term the 787-10 would replace the 777's. So CO would likely become a very efficient airline with two aircraft types - 737 for domestic and 787 for international. Boeing is to transition the 737's to 787 type technology and that will be where CO is headed.