Why Airbus?
 

In a previous thread, Mark Rogers mentions that its possible in 20 years UA will have two fleets, A319/320 for narrowbody and 777 for widebody (he didn't say it will happen, just that its possible).

This made me wonder, why did UA switch to Airbus after years of operating Boeing narrobodies? For years the fleet was 737-2/3/5, and 757-200, but in more recent years the only narrowbody additions have been Airbus 319/320. These are very different aircraft in terms of design philosophy, engines, operating equipment, and maintenance requirements. What caused the switch?

From a frenchman standpoint, Airbus just make better planes !!!! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I remember 2 reasons pretty clearly:

1. Boeing was reluctant to extend the range of the 737 family.

2. Airbus offered OUTSTANDING lease terms.

The ironic thing is that after losing the order to Airbus, Boeing DID extend the range with the newest 737 versions.

So will we see 321s to replace the 757s?

All the full service airlines are moving to a combined fleet. I think the reason is to work one vendor against the other.

The exceptions are the lowfare carriers who are generally standardized on 737s (some exceptions) because there are many older 737s available at a reasonable cost to get a lowfare airline started.

I sure hope not. I really like the 757. All we get in SNA are the 757 and Airbus. I don't know what it is, but I just like the 757 much more than Airbus, even though the Airbuses are newer and have the updated interrior.

read the next post-sorry

[This message has been edited by jss (edited 04-26-2002).]

"All the full service airlines are moving to a combined fleet. I think the reason is to work one vendor against the other"

I'd disagree with this. AA and DL are notable for signing MOU's with Boeing to operate an all Boeing fleet.

US is the only U.S. airline flying the 321 and I'm just going to say, don't make a comment until you've been on this bird! It is very nice. I'm looking forward to my 3 segments on the 321 this weekend! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

LH replaces old 737s by Airbus A320 family :

1- More confort for pax, because the cabin is wider.

2- same pilots for A318, A319, A320 and A321 aircrafts (and same maintenance) .

3- lower operative costs !

Airbus is not only french, but merged from :

- BAE systems (UK)
- Aerospatiale-Matra (France)
- DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Germany)
- CASA (Spain)

http://www.airbus.com

Well on 3 flights you can count on about 2 tail strikes...

UA needed a 737 size plane for transcon flights, and back in the early nineties when they made the Airbus order, the NG 737s were still several years away.

Losing the 757/767 fleet seems unlikely in my opinion...there is too large a seat gap between the A321 and the 777.

one of the gotcha's on the a320 is when they toss an a319 in its place and you have a seat assignment behind row 2. all the seating gets screwed up and pax have dup. seat assignments. if you had 3b, you now have nothing, if you had 6c, you are no longer in a bulkhead and if you had the exit row, you now are in E-.

i try to never take an ug in row 3 if i can. i always check the plane type the day before and day of flight to make sure it didnt change. if it did, i start negotiating for a new seat assignment.

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f

friend in fleet planning said there are no plans to replace the 737/744/757/767/ fleet anytime soon. He said most of those birds are owned... so maybe in 20 years, you'll see a different makeup. He said everything so fare is chit-chat.

United already said it won't go w/ the A321 for operational reasons... it's not a short field performer like the 757.

Only thing on the books right now is dumping the 767-200s for -300s and UA is waiting to see how CO/NW/TZ are doing w/ the 757-300 before ordering a few.

fparker1 you are absolutely correct, and same deal happens to 733-US Market1 & 2. For ex-shuttles routes (SFO-LAX, BUR-SFO etc.etc.), they like to switch between these 2 planes last minute.

row 10A and 10F are probably the best econ. seat in 733-market1 coz of the missing window seat in row 9. and for 733-market2 this row is in 12. so double check when picking this exit row!