A330-200 Envoy updates?

[Sally4th]

Why in the world would they issue a press release for something that isn't going to happen for three years?


Edited: Oh, I get it, the whole 332 333 fleet will be completed by 2012.
Status page here.

 

[Travelpro72]

They make this big announcement (which is fantastic by the way) about pod seats yet your odds of actually booking a flight on the A330 that has them is slim at best. I'm sorry but this just makes a positive announcement turn sour. US has such a tiny widebody fleet and on top of that your only reconfiguring the A330. Three YEARS? :blink: WOW! ! !

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

The new envoy seat are being discussed over at a.net
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/g...d.main/4552733/

One poster wonders why the conversion will take so long. So far no one has come up with the obvious answer: Umm, 'cause it's US Airways.

 

[PHL]

The real question is why are they waiting so long to begin the 333's. The 3 existing 332's will be done in 2010, and all new deliveries will have the seating, right?

So, that really just means that - by the time the 332 deliveries are complete, USAirways will have the lie flat beds also complete (in that fleet).

It reminds me of when they announced the new 767 seats about 15 months before the first ones actually were installed due to "seat manufacturer delays".

 

[Black Magic]

In a way I think they just are trying to market a new product even though they don't have it yet to try and entice bookings. Some people might actually book a trip thinking these are already installed and come to find out its years down the road when they actually get on the plane.

I mean anything can happen in 3 years! US could be merged with another company or the planned could be scrapped completely.

 

[LGA777]

The 3rd A-330-200 A/C 281 is scheduled to enter service today Tuesday 9-22 doing 1071-1024 PHL-SJU-PHL subing for the scheduled 757 for the next 3 days.

Regards

LGA777

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Why will it take so long? US answers! From the new "About US"
Rate their answer.
As I stated in an earlier post, "real airlines" such as DL and BA are installing pod type seats in their far larger long haul fleets. At a much faster rate. As many have said in this topic, the seat are great, but just please don't take three years to install them!



The reason for the delay is quite simple, really. Developmental
seats often take longer to produce than expected. Knowing
that, we still decided to choose a new concept – a seat that had
never been produced before – because we believed its unique
reverse herringbone configuration would provide a superior
customer experience above and beyond any other business
class solution available on the market. Although we pushed
hard to meet delivery of our first A330-200, it became clear
over time that additional testing was required.
To protect the delivery schedule of our first few A330-200s –
and provide our customers with a quality product on an interim
basis – we used the same seat type found on our A330-300
fleet. Aircraft 282AY, which is our fourth A330-200 and is
scheduled for delivery this November, will be the first aircraft
to arrive with Envoy Suites in our business class cabin. The
first two A330-200s we received will be retrofitted with the
new seats beginning in January. We’ll hold off retrofitting our
third and fifth A330-200s until fall 2010 when the European
flying season ends. The A330-300 Envoy cabin won’t be
retrofitted until later because additional development work
needs to be conducted to fit seats to its different size and shape

 

[PHL]

Explain to me why #4 will come with the suites, but #5 won't?! Will Airbus ultimately be installing them during assembly, or are all of them going somewhere else to have the interiors done?

And, how much additional development does the A330-300 need for the same seat? The cabin is the same width, and even longer to allow maybe an additional row or two. Does that take so long to redevelop? I'm no engineer, but....

 

[Dont call me Shirley]

Explain to me why #4 will come with the suites, but #5 won't?! Will Airbus ultimately be installing them during assembly, or are all of them going somewhere else to have the interiors done?

I was wondering about that as well. But then again we are talking about US Airways!

 

[etops1]

God I swear this airline is a complete and utter joke. So inadequate in everything that's done...EVERYTHING!!. It really needs to take a page from Continentals book and see how they do it.But wait...They are a real airline. Gosh, what was I thinking???

 

[flybynite]

I know. It's embarrassing. Hell, they haven't even finished painting the fleet.
:down: :down:

 

[Black Magic]

Ya I was thinking that the other day. Management thinking is "well we painted MOST of the fleet, that qualifies right? We'll just not paint the rest cause it costs money and the customer won't notice." I think this was all by design anyway as they were planning for yet another merger and were going to have to paint the aircraft again.

 

[700UW]

Painting airplanes is a scheduling nightmare. The ones that are being returned to the lessor soon wont be painted.

And some are probably close to their HMV and will wait till the check is done to paint them.

Look at UAL, they are still painting planes after like 10 years of changing it.

 

[Black Magic]

That may be the case at United. But at LCC they were painting the aircraft at a hot pace, one right after the other, and then they stopped completely.

 

[SS255]

I know. It's embarrassing. Hell, they haven't even finished painting the fleet.
:down: :down:

I love the dark blue paint. It's very sexy.