PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - GD..Under performance, greed & incompetence?
Old 27th Sep 2007, 06:25
  #18 (permalink)  
Going Boeing
 
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I am no friend of GD but my information is that the A330-200 floors could take Sleeper seats, but it would take a gutting of the interior to do it. So they don't.
The first 7 A330's (4x200's & 3x300's) were ordered and delivered in a domestic configuration (despite many telexes from Airbus requesting confirmation that that configuration was what they really wanted). The -300's were modified at a cost of $20-$25 million per aircraft because it was essential that they be used on international routes but money was not made available for the -200's so they became "white elephants" restricted to domestic operations despite having much longer range than the -300's. In Jetstar operations this is not a problem as they are using the QF domestic business class seat (ie much lighter than the Sleeper business class seat), but when the B787's enter service, JQ will return the A332's to QF and it will be interesting to see how QF use them then. An additional 8 A332's are on the way (2 already in service with JQ) and these aircraft will have stronger floors which will allow them to be used on international routes such as Melbourne to Beijing, Sydney to Mumbai, Los Angeles to Auckland (short period only), etc

Peter Gregg admitted that he was on the committee that made the original error in judgement, but it is interesting to note that at no stage did senior management bonuses decrease to compensate for this fcukup.
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