Originally Posted by
nighthawk117
Not all of the traffic is heading to New York, a lot will be carrying on to other destinations. This traffic is now being adequately served by transfers through Boston, Washington and Chicago. Just because the number of seats to New York has decreased, doesn't mean there's now a shortage of capacity - the transfers will have moved elsewhere, freeing up capacity for New York bound passengers.
Even if there is a shortage of seats, increasing capacity is a difficult balancing act, it's not as simple as just putting a 767 on the route. To do so, you need to remove the 767 from another route. So first you need to find a route that is struggling and down gauge it to a 757, or a route that is doing well and can be up-gauged to a 777/787.. but only if you drop a 777/787 destination etc. Given the lack of range of the 757, this is going to limit your options on where you can send it in the first case.
The second option is to add another daily 757 flight, like they used to. However, Newark is at capacity and there are no spare slots available, so to do this will involve dropping an existing route. You've also then got to factor in what else that slot could be used for - are they going to make more money on a second daily EDI, or could they make more launching a new route or increasing frequency to somewhere else in Europe.
The final option is to keep things the way they are, and keep charging higher fares.
You can't just think about EDI on it's own, and what it needs. There's only so many aircraft to go around, so any changes will need changes elsewhere in the system to accommodate it.
Stats for May are not reflecting this. UA and DL both still rammed on NYC, averaging 93% full for the month. That's despite PHL and ORD operating all month, plus IAD and BOS joining later on.
As for fleet rotation, I believe UA's strategy now is to get the B75Ws off most the transatlantic routes sooner rather than later anyway. I'd say that's backed up by the equipment changes made on routes over the past year or two. B78X deliveries are freeing up widebodies too. I don't think it'd be much of a stretch for them, they've managed it on every other year round B75W route out of EWR so far.
EDI is just one small part of a bigger picture, of course. It just wouldn't surprise me if the change is made at some point down the line, given the general trend being observed elsewhere on UA's Euro network...