Although the Engine Alliance is technically a joint venture between Pratt and GE, my friends at both Pratt and GE tell me that Pratt was very much a 'junior partner' - GE ran things. And of the 'big three', GE keeps a much closer eye on the bottom line - they only do things if they think it makes financial sense. GE sees the GP7000 as an orphan - it has little commonality with any other GE engines and is a point design for the A380 - plus making the A380 better would likely hurt other GE programs (e.g. 777X and 747-8). So when TC said he'd order more A380s, but only if they improved the fuel burn, GE looked at what it would take and what it would cost, figured it was good money after bad, and said 'no thanks'.

[QUOTE]Being forced onto the 330/350 at EK would be a job ender for many. Nothing but India / Pakistan night turns./QUOTE]

Nothing has been announced regards routes, the new 330 NEO may do its fair share of turns, but the 350 is best at 8-12 hour flights. The 777 and 380 will continue to do their share of Turnarounds. Turns suit some colleagues and not others same with ULRs and everything in between.

SyB :ouch:

I agree with Sheikh Your Bootie. Those Boeing pilots that now think they will be able to say goodbye to night turnarounds, could be rather disappointed. A quick look at my logbook shows that nearly all of my night turns in the past few months have been very busy if not close to full. Therefore I can't see the company being in a rush to reduce capacity with using a 330, when demand is already buoyant.

Perhaps the 330 is going to be better suited to plying routes with weaker demand and maybe suck up some of FlyDubai's best performing routes to the likes of Europe etc? I think the 777 will have its share of turns at the back of the clock for some time to come.

It will certainly help though EM. There are a few spots in Indian where seat limits mean 100 seats have to be left empty in the 77er . Inter gulf flights are normally an over kill when done with the 777 .
Timing is almost perfect as it always is when the merde fLows from one fleet to the other . Pretty constant cycle over the past few decades .