New A-330's ordered

luvthe9 said:
US Airways to Add Seven Airbus A330-200 Aircraft to Fleet

Nov. 20, 2007

These are not additions they are replacements.
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Well. I tend to agree with you, but the wording does say "Add Seven Airbus A330-200 Aircraft to Fleet."

My hope is that by the time 2009 rolls around and we see the first two arrive that Doogie will have come to his senses and realized that, though long in the tooth, the B767-200ER fleet is still a good airplane to have around. It will be great for Hawaii service out of PHX and/or LAS. It will also be nice to have for developing South American routes.

But given the fleet projections already released by Tempe, I agree that these are likely replacement aircraft.
 
CO pilots routinely move between the 757 and 767. Same concept - commonality between platforms and abbreviated transition training. It is possible, however, for someone to have only a B757 type rating if they were trained on only that aircraft. Same goes for the 767.

So, while the A330/A340 may have commonality to allow relatively easy transition, I think it's more of an operational question that has to be addressed by the company, pilots' unions and FAA(to sign off on the operation manual changes). Technically speaking, Joe Pilot trained on the 330 and 340 could walk off one and fly the other from an FAA legality standpoint.
 
PHL said:
CO pilots routinely move between the 757 and 767. Same concept - commonality between platforms and abbreviated transition training. It is possible, however, for someone to have only a B757 type rating if they were trained on only that aircraft. Same goes for the 767.

So, while the A330/A340 may have commonality to allow relatively easy transition, I think it's more of an operational question that has to be addressed by the company, pilots' unions and FAA(to sign off on the operation manual changes). Technically speaking, Joe Pilot trained on the 330 and 340 could walk off one and fly the other from an FAA legality standpoint.
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Actually, this brings up another good point. The real issue for commonality is landing currency. As far as the FAA is concerned, because of the commonality of the 757/767, I can fly around for years on nothing but 757s, but my landing currency is still good for the 767 is one shows up at the gate. I believe the FAA will see the A330/A340 situation the same way.
 
It is possible and entirely legal - I suspect a large percentage of Captains at every airline of any size hold multiple type ratings (with the exception of the likes of WN, F9, etc, that have only one type in the fleet).

However, just about every airline has wisely (in my opinion) decided not to cross-utilize crews except on planes with a common type rating (other than for a handful of management pilots).

Jim
 
A couple notes of interest here. According to Airbus the A330-200 has a range of 5981 NM. This is with a suggested max pax load of 293 in a two class configuration and 253 in a three class configuration. That is with 32 in pitch in coach. It does not state whether the range is with reserves or is the max range. The distance between Philadelphia and Beijing is 6883 SM or 5981 NM. This is the great circle route and not necessarily used in air navigation. However, based on this info it does appear that the A300-200 could possibly be used on this route. Incidentally, the A330-300 shows a range of 5650 NM.
The next question is with this airline in it's present method of operation we will not know if we go there until we hear over the airport PA that flight number 111 to Beijing is delayed!!
 
Onestep2flt said:
The distance between Philadelphia and Beijing is 6883 SM or 5981 NM. This is the great circle route and not necessarily used in air navigation. However, based on this info it does appear that the A300-200 could possibly be used on this route. Incidentally, the A330-300 shows a range of 5650 NM.
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The company says it's getting A340s for Beijing. The order for the 7 A330s has nothing to do with the Beijing route.
 
I was aware of the A340's the company announced. My point was that you never know what Management will do. Those aircraft may never show up on the property. There have been lots of promises with not a lot of action since the merger announcement. I was trying to convey that the A330-200 appears to be firm orders and as such may be capable of the mission with proper planning. That is where things seem to go wrong around here is lack of proper planning.
 
Barberpole said:
i'm definitely not a big dougie fan but you have to admit that he has turned a chronically money losing airline around. Who cares if he crams in more coach seats if it results in 1 Bilion in profits since the merger was consumated? Obviously he is doing something right where Siegal and Lakefield failed. Now if you guys would just give up the USAPA/vacate Nic award pipe dream we could get our fair share of that profit. Sometimes I think the majority of the east enjoys being miserable.
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I admit Dougie sunk his claws into a money-making airline, US, leveraging his loser, AWA, and hiding his massive losses by burying his losses in a once great money-maker.

The guy is a loser used car dealer who, with his connections, managed to vault himself into the big time. We can kill the bastards "career" now or suffer over the years.

Lakefied failed? Only that he allowed a loser like Dougie to take over.

Sometimes I think the westies eat way too many twinkies.
 
If you assume these aircraft are additional aircraft since they say it is to expand destinations to Europe - how many more additional crew (flight and FA's) will be required to operate the aircraft?

If you are growing European and Asian flying and you don't have aircraft to redeploy - I assume you must grow your widebody aircraft.
 
jcw said:
If you assume these aircraft are additional aircraft since they say it is to expand destinations to Europe - how many more additional crew (flight and FA's) will be required to operate the aircraft?

If you are growing European and Asian flying and you don't have aircraft to redeploy - I assume you must grow your widebody aircraft.
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I would presume that with the Bush Admin. imposed devaluation of the dollar in order to line their own pockets, foreigners would flock to the US, assuming we control our xenophobic paranoia.

This could be a great opportunity, provided we squelch all the mullet headed double-wide Tempe single digit IQ morons. Would that be asking too much?
 
I don't know what the bush admin has to do with this and the value of the dollar.

If it's a bad idea to grow international flying then the pilots can refuse to settle on wages for the A330-200 (if they need to do that since the A330 already has a scale - I'm not sure if they will need to negotiate).

Would anyone know how many more pilots & FA's would be needed if indeed two A330's are added to the fleet from 2009 through 2011?
 
jcw said:
I don't know what the bush admin has to do with this and the value of the dollar.

If it's a bad idea to grow international flying then the pilots can refuse to settle on wages for the A330-200 (if they need to do that since the A330 already has a scale - I'm not sure if they will need to negotiate).

Would anyone know how many more pilots & FA's would be needed if indeed two A330's are added to the fleet from 2009 through 2011?
Click to expand...

The east contract has in place pay rates for all of the A330 and A340 models already.
 
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