Somebody told me that they were leaving cargo behind with the 777's. Since cargo revenue is pretty substantial could that be part of the reason that the 400's are coming back?
Prior to CH11 UAL had 44 747-400s. Earlier this year, the plan was to keep about half of them. The number I heard last week was to keep 32 or 33. UAL did quite well with the new 747 lease rates. Boeing and the lease holders really didn't have much leverage because the demand for the airplanes was not there in the marketplace. Lease rates, along with the significantly lower pilot pay rates, has completely changed the economics of the 747-400 for UAL.
I wouldn't get too excited about United pulling planes out of the desert. I think what you are going to see is United cut its fleet size by 50 to 75 planes next year. However, we will actually be flying more seats around by better utilizing the aircraft kept. Yes, less airplanes, more capacity.
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