United To Asia
- Thread starter Ukridge
- Start date
It seems to me that a few months back, I read something that Boeing was going for a 5 - 5 1/2 hour ETOPS certification for some B777 and the B7E7. Sorry, I am not up on ETOPS matters and could not find a link to such an article. However, I do recall thinking at the time I read it that there most likely should be a requirement to have a qualified Heart Specialist on board such flights to care for the cockpit crew should they become forced to look forward to a 5 1/2 hour flight on one engine.
Cosmo is right. UA can start IAD-NRT anytime it wants. It would either need to acquire additional slots, or start up the service at the expense of existing NRT service from another gateway. Don't count on that happening anytime soon. I know that had the US Airways merger gone through, we were looking to start BOS-NRT and/or PHL-NRT. So much for that idea.
From a fleet standpoint, United would find it difficult to start up a IAD-NRT service: only a fraction of UAs 777-200ERs can fly the route nonstop, as the POS P&W engines cripple the MTOWs of much of the 772ER fleet.
Latin America to Australia is a vey limited market but one that in recent years has shown some legs. Qantas used to fly twice weekly from SYD-ALK-EZE with a 744, then Lanchile, a OneWorld Qantas partner, started SCL- ALK- SYD three times weekly with an A340-300. Why would a flight from Australia to South America want to go to Sao Paulo?
Buenos Aires would seem the logical point, its 3 hours closer & not as physically challeneged as Santiago is due to its altitude. Though Sao Paulo is the biggest city in South America with the biggest airport in terms of service to Europe and the USA, the Argentine Capitol is a close second. AA serves GRU with a 777, the only other city in Latin America to get the 777 treatment is BA. Buenos Aires is more centrally located for service to Aussie from South America.
Buenos Aires would seem the logical point, its 3 hours closer & not as physically challeneged as Santiago is due to its altitude. Though Sao Paulo is the biggest city in South America with the biggest airport in terms of service to Europe and the USA, the Argentine Capitol is a close second. AA serves GRU with a 777, the only other city in Latin America to get the 777 treatment is BA. Buenos Aires is more centrally located for service to Aussie from South America.
LatAm to SE Asia and reverse is surprisingly strong for cargo -- one of thos markets where you can't look at the pax revenues alone.JFK777 said:
