JOSECONLSCREW28

Couldn't find the international 787 thread but starting with the winter flying month IAD-GRU & IAD-PEK will transition to the 787. This is in addition to IAD-CDG & IAD-LHR. Current 787 routes out of IAH will transition to 772 & 763 aircraft.

char777

Does this mean that the 787 that flies DEN-NRT will now be rotated out of IAD instead of IAH?

JOSECONLSCREW28

That or rotate with a SFO 787 route. XXX-SFO-DEN-NRT-DEN-SFO and so on.

char777

Thanks. Looks like you're right. For DEN-SFO in late May, I see 1x 788 and 1x 789. Not to mention 1x 772 as well. Wild!

FlyHighInTheSky

Wonderful news! I'm a frequent IAD-GRU flyer and would warmly welcome a 787 on the route

Kmxu

It seems that the new routes require three aircraft. IAD-LHR and IAD-CDG need one a/c each.

N104UA

I believe they will rotate it out of SFO and IAH

JOSECONLSCREW28

IAH 787 flying will move to IAD. Current 787 flying will be flown with a mix of 772 and 763. DEN-NRT will most likely be rotated with SFO with IAD-PEK, IAD-GRU rotated with CDG & LHR.

Hartmann

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/ar...ouston-436040/

EWR764

Some more color:

- UA has filed a Notice of Proposed Decision Making with ALPA which will likely result in a 787 pilot base opening at IAD, with associated displacements at IAH 787/IAD 777 and vacancies in IAH 777/767
- No longhaul markets at IAH will be cut... IAH-FRA goes to 777 and IAH-GIG to 763ER
- Expect the IAH-DEN 787 to go away as the DEN-NRT aircraft and flight crew will flow from SFO, with SFO-DEN 787s already in the schedule
- The company expects to free up the equivalent of one additional 787 of flying time by moving to IAD, with a schedule allowing for increased utilization

FWIW, the 787 and 777 pay the same, so the biggest hurdle will be training displaced IAH 787 pilots on the 777 (many of whom already have 777 type ratings) and IAD 777 pilots on the 787.

Hartmann

They quote utilization but could there also be a subtle hint in there that yields out of IAD haven't been that great?

UA_Flyer

This is good for Dulles based flyers such as myself to experience the 787 more often. UA still fly 777s out of IAD to Frankfurt and Tokyo, I guess 777s will not be totally gone from IAD.

Hope to see transcon flights out of IAD to SFO/LAX as part of the aircraft rotation.

UA_Flyer

I read the same. As a frequent flyer out of IAD to PEK and LHR, I do often see planes have not been full.

qukslvr619

It seems UA hasn't found the optimal solution for the 787 fleet. Yes they have them on long range SFO-China/Australia/New Zealand, the sort of missions they were designed for, but seems to go back/forth with respect to IAH flying.

Originally IAHLOS/AKL were deemed ideal missions. But the history of that was that AKL never started because of the Hobby temper-tantrum (WN starting international service at Hobby so UA wouldn't be able to support the lost traffic---un yeah Jeffie whatever), LOS started on a 777 when the 787 was delayed and then finally went to a 787 before being dropped. Then they operated them on GIG/AMS/NRT/EZE and I think SCL and LHR but that seemed to come and go and now they are left flying IAHFRA and IAHGIG

So now they are re-shuffling again. I could see several reasons for this:

1) Utilization. They can fly exIAD to Europe with one aircraft vs 1.5 for IAH-South America since the a/c basically sits the entire day. Yes I realize IADGRU does the same thing but I was thinking the LHR/CDG segments are much shorter and the statement of "making changes to our 787 flying will effectively add an entire 787 aircraft to our fleet for free" makes me think they are looking at not eating up as much aircraft time.

2) Capacity. Whether there is an admission of this or not, it is a bit of a shrink for IAD going from a 777 with 8/40/221 to a 789 with 48/204. True UA is not dropping flying/frequencies, but there is a capacity decrease going on.

3) Killing off 3-class markets quicker.....perhaps related to Polaris refits? Other than IADNRT and IADFRA, after these changes what other IAD markets will still have a 3-class cabin? Seems that most of the markets have transitioned to pmUA aircraft.

Often1

Full vs. PRASM?

The former only matters to passengers who care about seat assignments. The latter is all that matters to the carrier.