The future of A340?

[Stuck_in_an_ATR]

Anyone know what's going to happen with the CX 340's once the 777LR's start comming in? Is it true that the -346 are going to be phased out? What about the -343's and the 330's? How long will they stay? Just been offered a course on the 340 and I am curious how long I will stay on the type and what are going to be the future destinations/rosters

Cheers!

[Kane Toed]

The short answer is no, no-one who posts on prune knows what is going to happen, and I guess that includes most on the 3rd floor...

However, we are getting a couple of new A330's in the next couple of weeks, so my guess is that they'll be here for a while.

The party line is (and they NEVER lie) that the 343 will be staying for the foreseeable future, and the 346 will be going soon in order to save the costs of having a 'fleet' of 3 aircraft. Saying that, the intermediate plan is to keep the -600 going to JFK after the first ERs have arrived, and increase the service to 3 / day.

Longer term tho' get rid of the -600s, keep the rest.

I think that we should send the -600s to JNB all year round. But then again i'm about as low on the food chain as it is possible to be, so that won't happen!

[spannersatcx]

The 340-600's are on lease, that lease expires in the next year or two (I believe), the lease's are not being renewed (at this time). As the 346 is used primarily on the HKG-JFK route the first 777-300ER's (don't think we are getting LR's) will go to that route.

[geh065]

The 343s will be here for the medium term, although by 2015 the plan has them all gone. By 2012/2013, all of North America will be served by 777-300ERs.

As for JFK, the 777s will be going in November doing the yet-to-be-launched evening departure out of HKG. By the end of the year when five 777-300ERs have been delivered, both the daily non-stops to JFK will be the 777. The YVR-JFk flight will continue to be the 744 for now. After JFK, the 346s will be moved to launch a YYZ non-stop although this will only be for a short time before the 777s go there too as the 346s are moved elsewhere. The official line if that the 346s will leave although there are rumours that once ILFC offers a good deal, they will be retained. There are rumours also about us picking up three ex-South African 346s too :ugh: The A330s will be around for quite a while.

Also a flight number has been assigned to the mysterious JFK-LHR flight...CX840/841. No new rumours I have heard about this starting...just the appearance of a fliught number and 777 as aircraft type.

The October schedule now shows a 2nd Daily SFO flight, timings as follows:

CX870 HKG-SFO Daily 1410/1135 744 (New Flight)
CX872 HKG-SFO Daily 1625/1350 744

CX873 SFO-HKG Daily 0120/0625+1 744
CX879 SFO-HKG Daily 1335/1840+1 744 (New Flight)

Flights will also continue into the winter schedule:
CX870 HKG-SFO Daily 1410/1005 744 (New Flight)
CX872 HKG-SFO Daily 1630/1225 744

CX873 SFO-HKG Daily 0010/0655+1 744
CX879 SFO-HKG Daily 1205/1855+1 744 (New Flight)

[drongo]

Stuck_in_an_ATR, they have not ordered the 777LR, which is the ultra long range 777-200, they have ordered the 77W, the 777-300ER, extended range 777-300.

Kane Toed, 346 going to JNB in Sept.

geh065, I do not think anyone expects the 77Ws to get ETOPS approval that quickly, they will be doing a number of things for training when introduced.

[geh065]

Yes the first two 777-300ERs will fly around Asia waiting for the third to be delivered before flying longhaul. That will only be a matter of weeks, but other airlines have achieved ETOPS basically from day one based on their previous track record of ETOPS flights, so there is no reason why we cannot get 180mins at least for starters then work towards 207 later.

[drongo]

geh065,

Q: What ETOPS history does CX have with the GE90 series or GE90-115B powerplant ?

A: Nil. ETOPS is a maintenance approval, it is not driven by previous flight operations. SQ did not get it out of the box, they have a similar fleet with Trent powered 772/773.

[stillalbatross]

With the bus losing North America and London (soon) and doing lots more middle east and the logical move that they will upgrade the extra FRA and CDG services with a -400 as traffic increases and the new aircraft free up more of the -400 fleet. Well, is it just me or does it seem like the 'bus fleet is basically swapping rosters with the cripple 7? Give it a couple of years and all the bus will have left is lots of playing in the Sandpit, India, Oz and NZ, Jo'burg and some regionals.

And we can all look back misty eyed at Zurich and Istanbul and San Fran and New York and all the great places the fleet used to go :{

[jacobus]

My heart bleeds;:mad::* welcome to what the rest of us get on with. Min rest out and backs FRA/CDG/ROM etc.as opposed to being shat on our shinies whining...

[stillalbatross]

Jacobus, you misread my post. The 'bus fleet does min rest trips, it does 3 crew AKL with 15 hrs at the hotel. Besides 24 hrs isn't even close to min rest, I don't care how long the previous duty was. And the reason why you're getting only one night is because thats what the members of the AOA said they wanted :)

My post was more for the starter of this thread as it does seem that as the 346 disappears and both the Boeings take over more and more of the longhaul network the variety of flying the Airbus does may become quite limited.

[ACMS]

If you want nice trips, then fly the scare bus

if you want to fly the worlds best jet, fly the 777

[Ex Douglas Driver]

If you want ______________, then fly the 744???:E

[ChairmanBoysClub]

All of the best pilots are on the B744 - we all know that. :ok:

[geh065]

drongo,

the latest 777 newsletter seems to say that they are expecting ETOPS approval out of the box pretty much, with the first JFK flight announced for the 15th November.

[spannersatcx]

New flt announced, CX840/1 HKG-JFK-HKG 16:35-18:35 overnights JFK for something like an 0800 departure (UTC TIMES) 777-300ER. Could fly to LHR and back instead of wasting almost 12 hrs on the ground!

[FlexibleResponse]

spannersatcx,

I like that sort of thinking!

[404 Titan]

spannersatcx

Maybe that is the intention, eventually.:ok:

[geh065]

hearing it will happen year end-ish....but with A330s based in LHR.

[cpdude]

Smart to wait 12 hrs for a 08:00 departure. Trying to depart at 8-9PM for a ULR to HKG would be a disaster with the frequent 1-2 hr delays in departure at that time of night.