Alangirvan said:
But would JQ want to compete against Singapore, Emirates, Thai, Cathay to Rome with hand me down planes from Singapore?
Gulf do it with ex-SQ 343s (which were bought off SQ by Boeing as a sweetener for SQ to take 777s - you can still see the SQ 'bird' stamped on the metal bits in the loos).
It's not a question of would they 'want' to - rather would it be cost-effective to.
It comes down to the compensation package - if I were Boeing, I'd be offering 777s on ACMI, or throwing in free pilot training (onto 777 then onto 787) plus op & maint costs over & above whatever the performance benchmark in the 787 contract is. Like I said, it gets the 'frames out of the desert (always a bad look) and gets them into a top client where - who knows? - they might stick. Better that, than have them fill Toulouse's coffers further (and the payments for that would just be a straight bank transfer from Boeing to Airbus and that would
our friends in Chicago).
It'd be even sweeter for Boeing if they could get a few 'frames into mainline colours.