msnbc.msn.com/id/24963160
733, 735, 747’s involved. Furloughs coming, too.
I am still shocked every time I see a NW DC-9 touch down as to why since 9/11 when every airline under the sun parked their B727’s for the most part, along with the B737-200…why NWA upper brass continued to fly 9’s?
The MSNBC article says 100 aircraft are being grounded. Channel 7’s local newscast here in the Bay Area, where United is a major employer, says 70 aircraft.
THe MSNBC also says “It is also scrapping it’s coach-only “Ted” service and reconfiguring those planes to include first-class seats.” Anybody notice something wrong with that sentence?
I see it as scrapping the Ted service, but not the aircraft. Which will delight some people, according to what I’ve seen on these forums…
Here’s the AP version (msnbc article has refreshed to show the AP), dateline Chicago, United’s HQ city. They also say 100 planes.
Kinda funny…the video shot on the page shows a Continental Express ERJ…
I wasn’t an english major…but I’d say the incorrect portion of the sentence is “To put first class seats on some of the aircraft”. Since the economy is just booming right now 
The use of the word “it’s” is incorrect. I know I shouldn’t but I do expect major media outlets to use proper grammar.
A Bloomberg article says that United is removing 70 aircraft from the fleet. That agrees with the Channel 7 newscast. MSNBC got it partially right and partially wrong. Today’s announcement was for 70 aircraft to be removed. MSNBC then combined the 70 with the 30 that United removed back in April. 70 + 30 = 100.
It’s going to be strange not to see United with any 737s. They were one of the first ones to fly them. I don’t know why they never upgraded to the 737NG.
I’d guess the fact the have been reeling and bleedng cash since 9/11 would say why they had not made the upgrade…but there may be more to it.
If I recall correctly, none of the “legacy” airlines have really upgraded their fleets in the past few years. You’ve mentioned Northwest and its DC-9s. American has a lot of MD80 that should have been replaced. Delta recently took delivery of one aircraft - the first one in years. United has many older aircraft.
I don’t understand the management of some airlines. It seems like an airline with older, inefficient aircraft would do whatever it could in order to get rid of the older aircraft and get more efficient new aircraft.
If there’s no way to get newer aircraft then I would, if I was in charge, start looking at aircraft utilization. If that meant getting rid of hubs and their built-in inefficiency as far as aircraft utilization is concerned, I would do that.
Got me there, AA and DL both have MD-80’s…didn’t even think of those.
Because they OWN the DC-9’s. They lease most of their A319/320’S. Though the DC-9 costs more to operate, the lack of leasing costs make it cheaper to operate then their other planes. Now every day fuel goes up, the advantage is eliminated.
Funny… my wife recently traveled on United/Ted YVR-SFO-LAS and she said the flights were JAMMED WITH PEOPLE to the extent that they were asking for volunteers to be bumped. She traveled on an A319 and a A320.
Funny… my wife recently traveled on United/Ted YVR-SFO-LAS and she said the flights were JAMMED WITH PEOPLE to the extent that they were asking for volunteers to be bumped. She traveled on an A319 and a A320.
Loads don’t mean revenue. Income does. You could have a “jammed” flight with each person paying a $1 roundtrip fair…god forbid. Or there could be 1 person who bought a $100,000 roundtrip ticket. The flight with 1 person will make money, the packed flight will lose money in this analogy (which is total hyperbole).
I recall reading a report in the past showing the average per seat cost an airline must charge depending on equipment to turn a profit on that seat. Of course I can’t find it now that I’m curious. It was in the neighborhood of $437 per seat on a Comair CRJ 50 seater if I remember right.
to add on what I said earlier, you usually will see leisure flights more packed, and business flights with overcapacity, and lighter loads. The business routes bring in more money, a flight from Las Vegas to Orlando needs to be packed if it has any chance of making money on what is most likely a flight packed with low fares.