two more 777-300s

[junior_man]

From Reuters:

Cathay Pacific orders two Boeing 777-300 jets
Thu Jun 1, 2006 11:23 PM IST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hong Kong flagship airline Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. said on Thursday it placed orders for two additional wide-body Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with a total list price of about $501 million.

The order means Cathay is now committed to buy 18 of the extended-range planes, after the airline placed its biggest ever order in December. It holds purchase rights for 18 more.

[Minimums!]

Does anyone know how many new cockpit crews do they need per aircraft entering service?

Minimums!

[Near Miss]

I would hazard a guess at between 60-70 per aircraft, assuming it will be doing additional runs (did I hear 5 flights per day to LAX?). :{ Taking into account the need for reserve crews, pilots on holidays, crews already on layover, etc. This could be reduced if our F&DT limits are increased. :\

[Minimums!]

Thanks for the info near miss.

Minimums!

[BusyB]

If it was 10 crews per a/c it would be 20 pilots. I think you're a bit over the top there.:confused:

[spannersatcx]

Definately no extra Engineers!:=

[Denzil]

You won't need them Spanners, it's not an Airbus :oh:

[Near Miss]

BusyB with the 773ER doing ULH then they are going to need more than two pilots per sector. Unless you know something I don't, which isn't difficult.

Here is what I was thinking. Keeping it really simple, say an extra two LAX per day, gives approx 120 extra sectors a month. If a pilot only does ULH then they’ll do three layovers a month. So 4 pilots to do 6 sectors, 120 / 6 equals 20, multiply by 4 pilots, gives you 80 needed. Now there are of course holidays, F&DT limits, need for reserves, more than three layovers a month and the fact that not all flights are going to need 4 crew. So the above is only a (very) rough calculation, hence my guess at around 70.

[BusyB]

Near Miss,

I don't know what CX's exact crewing numbers are (only that they are always undercrewed).

The standard crewing ratio for LH/ULH is between 10-12 crews per a/c which gives 20-24 pilots per a/c.

An LAX service takes about 1.5 days for the a/c to do the return (including the downtime) so 2 aircraft are going to do about 40 LAX's a month.
That is 80 crews, each crew does 3, thats 27 crews, 13.5 per a/c. Now if you take into account most of the 777's are short/medium haul and that equates to leave, Sim, sickness and reserve, I think you can see that 10-12 crews/aircraft is not a million miles away.

Disclaimer. I am not an expert on this, just been around a fair time.:hmm:

[spannersatcx]

Well according to the daily news we took on our 2000th pilot, and we have 97 a/c. Which gives an average of 20 per a/c.

Far too many if you ask me!:rolleyes:

[Near Miss]

I thought one crew for ULH was 4 pilots. And we are talking 773ER which will mostly be used for ULH to JFK, LAX and later SFO. :confused:
Anyway, I was thinking of the number of ULH flights per day (using LAX as an example) and thus the number of pilots just to do those flights. I also have been told (straight from the horse's mouth) that one extra LAX per day means 70 extra pilots.
It doesn’t really matter; whatever the crew:aircraft ratio, more aircraft means more pilots. Which is a good thing. :ok:

[QNH1013]

Will there now be S/O's trained for the 777-300ER only or will S/O's be qualified on both the 747-400 and 777?