Bunky

More stored aircraft.
All 764s appear are parked or stored. 9 in ROW.
Many 763s in IAH, plus 4 in ROW storage
10 772s in ROW storage
9 of 10 752PWs in ROW storage. N596UA been in SFO since 3/21
Parking locations: SFO, ORD, DEN, IAH, IAD, EWR, MCO, GUM, HNL, MSY, MIA, TPA, SAT, CLE, AUS, BOX, FLL, LAS, LGA, PDX
Storage/maint: ROW, GYR, INT, DLH, LCQ, ILN, HKG, XMN, VCV

atword

N596UA on the way to ROW today. Sad times. (Also I count 11 PWs)

Bunky

752:
All 11 752PW units are now stored in ROW, I doubt they will return to service even though 7 have new WiFi.

763:
N673UA exited HKG 2797/30Mar with High J Polaris/PP

77W:
N2846U entered HKG maint 2775/30Mar

789:
N27957 sked to exit VCV 2743/30Mar in EvoBlu livery
N29961 sked to enter VCV 2742/30Mar for EvoBlu livery

Mod lines at HKG have been reduced from 7 to 5: was 6 Polaris /1 Domestic, now 5 Polaris/0 Domestic
Mod lines at XMN have been reduced from 5 to 3: was 3 772 Polaris, 2 787 Polaris, now 1 772 and 2 787s
763 Polaris line is not taking new units.
772 Polaris line: 772PW/complete, 772GE/1 to enter at some point,
787 Polaris line: no new units sent since Virus spread.
772ER Domestic program appears to be at least delayed

UAL757222

I can almost assure you that if they decide to ground permanently 757s, it won’t be just the 757-222s (which I hope return to service). Many of the ex-CO 757s will also meet their end. Many are well over 20 years old. They’re not just going to cut the 11 ps 757s and be done with it.

Plus UA does a lot of the PW2000 engine work in house and has a contract with the USAF for their C-17 engines. I wouldn’t be so sure they dump those 757s yet.

United857

I agree that if 757's were going to be retired, some non-refurbished pmCO units would probably go as well. However, a subfleet of 11 pmUA 757's using PW2000's is really not very efficient from a maintenance and spare parts inventory perspective for an airline as large as UA, especially in comparison to a streamlined fleet of 61 pmCO 757s all running the RB211s (40 200's and 21 300's), so I do think that the pmUA units would be the first to go.

jhayes_1780

I remember during the last pmUA fleet contraction, a big driver was to ground unencumbered/owned frames before leased ones. Fair to assume that leased frames with be the first to return (provided that that platform returns)?

Also, wasn't there a while where the used 752 platform was desired my FedEx, or maybe another cargo carrier? Is that still generally the case?

Bunky

One would expect the UA units to go first for these reasons:
- UA flew these aircraft on shorter hauls and must have many more cycles than the ExCO units
- The ExCO units have a higher GTOW and are all ETOPS
- Most ExCO units are newer aircraft. 5 are over 27 years old and the newer UA units are in the middle of the pack vs. ExCO units
- Commonality with currently 61 RR units and only 11 PW units
- ExCO units are probably more flexible as they have international configuration with more standard split between J and Y. If business demand is down for a while, UA 752 s might have too many J seats and these aircraft have been dedicated to transons. Emerging from the virus, international travel may be lower, which could drive widebodies onto transcon services, thus reducing the need for heavy premium narrowbodies.

The good news is all the UA 752s are probably paid off or have lower lease rates and, with fuel at historic lows, probably could fly at lower cost than some new aircraft. During retirement of scores of UA 752s, UA had said the 752 costs about $1 million a year more to operate than a 739ER - maybe that difference isn't as large at this point.

FedEx took a lot of 752s for conversion. I know they didn't want units with winglets. I suppose UA could remove the winglets, but maybe no one would like the five 27+ year old units.

EmailKid

Wait ... what

Why would they not want frames with winglets

And unlike Airbii wing dams, blended winglets can't be removed without some surgery Much like the new Airbii sharklets.

UAL757222

Most of the remaining 757-222 are ETOPS birds that did mostly Hawaii runs or transcons in between runs to the islands. Someone that works at UA may have the hours and cycles. I’d imagine they have less cycles than some of the retired ones that weren’t ETOPS. Some of the original ps birds like N502UA (which happens to be the oldest plane in UA’s fleet) has been doing transcons since ps launched in 2004.

FX doesn’t like 757s with winglets due to gate constraints at MEM and other hubs as the winglets have a larger wingspan. They can be taken off, as DL has 757s that do NBA charters that originally had them but were removed due to the low utilization of those a/c. There’s a few more ex-UA 757s that are with other non-FX airlines and one (N555UA, rr N758SS) is a sports charter aircraft and still has the winglets UA installed.

If this ends up being the death knell for 757s at UA, hopefully some of these find new homes or cargo carriers pick some up. I’d imagine the ETOPS and late 90s 757-222 are valuable for something other than scrap.

Bunky

Mainline Parked/Storage update: Parked aircraft do not have futures flights scheduled
319: 74 Total, 44 parked, 2 stored at ROW
320: 97 Total, 52 parked, 2 stored at ROW
73G: 40 Total, 24 parked
738 & 739 counts not done, but 739 nonERs are moving to ROW, 6 of 12 in or headed to ROW today
752: Total 51, 35 parked, 11 stored at ROW, including all 11 752PW
753: Total 21, 16 parked, 1 stored at ROW
763: Total 35, 29 parked, 1 in Polaris Mod
764: 16 Total, 1 in HKG maint, 15 stored at ROW
788: 12 Total, 10 parked, 1 in Polaris Mod
789: 28 Total, 19 parked, 1 in Polaris Mod
78X: Total 12, 5 parked
772 Domestic: 8 parked, 5 stored at ROW including sole 772ER Domestic and 3 ITPE (to become Domestic?)
772PW: 29 Total, 20 parked, 1 in Polaris Mod
772GE: 22 Total, 13 parked, 5 in Polaris Mod
77W: 22 Total, 7 parked, 1 in SFO Induction
Mainline Parked/stored Total: minimum of 384 (Wide 127, Narrow, 257 w/o 738/9 update)

riphamilton

if an a/c is 'stored', does that also mean you're counting it as 'parked'? or are the stored frames in addition to those that are parked?

(thanks for keeping track of this stuff, as always!)

Bunky

On the list above, parked does not include stored, except in the grand total at the bottom. There are numerous aircraft that are sitting, but have future flights shown on FR24. But, sometimes those flights are cancelled between now and departure time, so they could be parked. There is too much data to put together comprehensive info on each aircraft. However, I'm sure the stored aircraft at ROW will not be fired back up for now. There are also several airports like MCO where some of the 757s also may not rotate back into service. I would expect the same at IAH for the 763s and maybe the 772s.

I wish I knew, but am guessing if an aircraft hasn't gone back into service within a week or so, it could be stored for the duration.

EWR764

A great clue is ROW storage... if an airplane is parked there, it's not coming back any time soon, maybe ever.

Despite the most compelling case anyone can make to hang on to the 6 frames that are comparable in age to the 75B/75S (757-224), the 75K fleet (757-222) is the lowest-hanging fruit to cut. Retirement of that fleet was already underway and would otherwise have concluded in 2021 or 2022.

I'm sure some 75B/75S will be on the chopping block, too, but they also have the ability to serve as a lower-cost Europe platform until demand returns or the 321neos arrive. The 75K is redundant, at this time, as United has plenty of new/ish premium-heavy widebodies (on which it needs to make payments) to deploy on premium TCONs.

thejaredhuang

With the exception of the 764 and 738/9? I'm sure those will come back online at some point.

glbltvlr

Apparently, Oscar held an employee Town Hall today. Per The Points Guy, no decision has been taken on permanent fleet reductions, but top of the list are the 757s, High-J 767s, CRJ-200s, and ERJ-145s, followed by older A320s.