Per Skyliner
Boeing 777 -222 26935 88 VT-AIL Air India ferried 23-24dec10 PEK-TUS-MZJ, all white ex N789UA
flightaware.com/live/flight/AIC5 … /ZBAA/KTUS
flightaware.com/live/flight/AIC5 … /KTUS/KMZJ
Anyone know what is going on with this 777? According to airfleets.net it is being returned to lessor and re-registered as N789UA. Couple of shots of it at Beijing on airliners.net in new all white paint.
According to airlinerlist.com this aircraft was delivered to UA in 1997, stored at Goodyear and other airports beginning in 2005, delivered to Air India in 2005.
It was stored at Mumbai in mid 2009 then Beijing in 2010. It was registered there to N789UA and had an all-white color scheme.
The FAA shows it registered to US Bank
If I had to guess, it will probably be converted into a freighter. However it could be picked up by an asian charter airline. You’re right, not much demand for these things.
Interestingly, right now UA could use a handful more of these for their new hub-to-hub routes (like EWR-SFO, IAH-SFO, EWR-LAX), but I doubt they’ll be interested. To my knowledge UA and CO haven’t bought or leased a second-hand aircraft for any extended period of time in the past 15 years. Operationally these aircraft aren’t that great for domestic hub operations in the US because if they get delayed it results in about 250 misconnects and probably just as many downline misconnects and wreaks havoc on the system.
I believe this 772 is going to Ryan Intl Airlines. Ryan intends to buy 2 of the 772s
(the other one is N790UA) from Air India and use them for military charters.
N789UA - ex Air India VT-AIL
N790UA - ex Air India VT-AIJ
These will be the first ever 777’s for Ryan.