US Airways says search for A340s exacerbated by 787 delay

[Travelpro72]

I can say that 99% of the time when on a flight to a foreign destination and a lodo is present they make ALL announcements for the most part. They do it in English followed by the language they speak. I can't remember on t/a of two different f/a's doing announcements. It's not mandatory but seem to remember them doing all of them at one time rather than the lodo running to the pa to follow up with the translation.
As for this A340 business I call BS. They will try to come up with every excuse under the sun. They are out of their league and over their heads. It's showing. Employees can see it, customers see it and the industry sees it. WHEN will the board members see it?

 

[crusher]

With few 340's seemingly available for the pennies Tempe is willing to pay . They seriously need to look at other aircraft types that might be suitable for Asia traffic. I am sure that 747's and MD11's are probably available and 777's might even be. This is just the usual SNAFU and /or FUBAR for Tempe. Once again they prove that they are incapable and incompetent of running this airline.

 

[fr8tmastr]

With few 340's seemingly available for the pennies Tempe is willing to pay . They seriously need to look at other aircraft types that might be suitable for Asia traffic. I am sure that 747's and MD11's are probably available and 777's might even be. This is just the usual SNAFU and /or FUBAR for Tempe. Once again they prove that they are incapable and incompetent of running this airline.

What I heard is that the 777's were available with short term leases from Boeing expiring when the 787 became available.

Airbus at all costs

 

[crusher]

The next question is , Is Tempe smart enough to go after available 777's. I tend to doubt it , even though it is a proven aircraft with fairly good efficiency and capacity.

 

[bigbusboy]

If US Airways was a real airline, the appropriate aircraft would already be arriving on the property. Pilots would already be in transition training. Flight Attendants would be going through service and cultural awareness training. The company and the union would be working together to think like a real airline and address big-boy issues like Purser Programs, language speakers, crew rest areas etc. The training department, marketing, and dining and cabin would be examining competitors and alliance partner's service and designing a signature service for both Envoy and Economy. Marketing would be advertising the launch in key cities and negotiating closer codeshare and interline agreements with Star Alliance partners.

What is US Airways doing? Voting on a beverage cart setup, studying plastic cups, and blaming it's woes on jetstreams, greedy customers, and ironically, the Chinese New Year.

US Airways is so unbelievably out of it's league here. Only under Wolf/Gangwal could transpacific service have been launched responsibly, realistically, and with an appropriate product. I think a few things are at work here, firstly, I don't think they thought they'd get it. Secondly, they thought they'd be all sqaured away as a part of Delta or some other experienced global carrier by the time it came up. They have NO idea what they are doing here.

This airline can't cater or configure properly an E190 from Philly to Raliegh. Pull the award from this joke of a company.

This is about the best description I've read yet about our China situation...thank you!!! There is really NO EXCUSE for not having appropriate a/c for this flight worked out by now, if they were truly serious about entering this market.

 

[DCAflyer]

fr8tmaster, I wouldn't be surprised if the short-term 777 leases were available only to airlines that order the 787s.

Crusher, it would be great to have 747s as the workhorse of our Asian route fleet, if for no other reason than it would give us much more Cargo lift, especially if we were to do a mixed cargo configuration with a shorter forward cabin and an abreviated cargo compartment aft of the passenger cabin. Somehow, I just don't see the Tempe turds thinking outside the box on this (or anything else).

For the life of me, I don't understand why Tempe didn't work with Airbus the second we were awarded the route to get a couple of 340s into the production que, with the understanding that they could be converted to 332s if we were to find 340s elsewhere. Of course, that would involve planning rather than knee-jerk reacting... something this management team knows little about.

One question I have is how difficult would it be to get approval to change the fleet type at this point. Currently, our route approval is for the 340.

 

[crusher]

Tempe reacts rather than being proactive

 

[700UW]

PIA just put up four 747-300s for sale.

 

[FWAAA]

PIA just put up four 747-300s for sale.

-300s? Not enough range to fly PHL-China nonstop fully loaded.

 

[sharktooth]

I can say that 99% of the time when on a flight to a foreign destination and a lodo is present they make ALL announcements for the most part. They do it in English followed by the language they speak. I can't remember on t/a of two different f/a's doing announcements. It's not mandatory but seem to remember them doing all of them at one time rather than the lodo running to the pa to follow up with the translation.

I remember on the Concorde (British Airways), a multi-button panel where one could select core announcements in about twelve different languages. How does the CBA address that?

 

[sharktooth]

Once again they prove that they are incapable and incompetent of running this airline.

You know.

Dougie and his zombies keep getting awards/bonusi(sp?) for, apparently, doing something different than running an airline.

Perhaps they only seem incompetent. We keep thinking they are here to "run an airline"â„¢. Perhaps they are here to do something different and doing it well, that is why they keep getting rewarded. Just because they do not comply with our expectations does not mean they are not doing something well.

If we could find out what they are actually here to do, perhaps we could design a CBA that would actually help us all.

 

[jimntx]

"Unable to locate airplanes that suit our needs" So basically when translated into English that means "we cannot find any 340's on the 75% off clearance rack that fits our cost neutral goal."

In addition to the lease cost, I heard that every single one they looked at had coat closets and empty overhead bins. They are concerned about the conversion costs to LCC standard. (Just joking, guys. I don't envy you the next few months.)

 

[FWAAA]

The selection process is flawed when an airline can apply for (and be awarded) scarce route authorities and frequencies like those to China without having any suitable aircraft on the property or at least on firm order. All the other successful applicants already had suitable aircraft on their property at the time of application. Some ordered additional aircraft (like CO just did) to cover their new flights but even CO already had 777s suitable for flying EWR-PVG. AA didn't order new 777s but it has canceled some long-haul 777 routes in the last couple of years, like DFW-KIX, ORD-NGO and SJC-SEA. AA's got 47 777s and their utilization rate is somewhat low, so there's usually an airplane or 1.5 airplanes worth of slack in the system.

US, on the other hand, had no firm orders for suitable airplanes specifying delivery prior to the start date of service. :down: on both Parker and the DoT.

EMBFA said it best, IMO.

 

[zethya]

I think I've mentioned this a "Few" times on here. I believe if Parker attempts to downgrade the capacity stated in the Proposal to a heavily weight restricted 332, the DOT very likely will cancel the award and re-solicit the route - if for no other reason due to expected protests from other airlines - including UA. The potential public embarrassment and resulting negative relationships with the DOT and Philadelphia created by such an act should make any reasonably qualified BOD take appropriate pre-emptive action. Further, since a weight restricted 332 would very likely require a topped fuel level for the range, the restrictions would need to be in the cargo (a major asset for China services) and passenger capacities. This would almost guarantee the route wouldn't produce acceptable yields until 2014 - the arrival of the first 350s - if in fact the authority is even re-awarded for a 2nd term, or an "Open Skies" agreement is achieved. If the executive officers of this company have any sense of worth, they should dream up some LOGICAL excuse and simply NOW request the award be canceled. Blame it on the unexpected overall economic downturn and through-the-roof fuel costs. Otherwise, they should call in all their favors from Airbus and demand 2 340s this year - THEY CAN BE PRODUCED IN AS LITTLE AS 9-11 MONTHS. IMO, any thought of using 747-200/300s is economically unsound and the very few available 2nd source 340-300s are too old and/or reliably questionable for the range. If they were serious about this route, they should have leased the 2 AC 340-500s from AC late last year when they had the opportunity and lived with the excess capacity.

 

[elixir]

I agree, EMBFA is dead-on. You simply cannot in your wildest dreams throw this China deal together in the 11th hour. This is possibly going to be the biggest test of Tempe's abilities (or lack thereof) to be a "big boy" airline...and they are already making excuses.

I'm just a stupid pilot, but the ONLY thing Tempe has said for sure going forward is that domestic ops will remain static, and the only growth area is International...

ummm, OK.

last time I checked, China was on the other side of the world, ( Tempe, thats International...I'm fairly confident) so....is we is, or is we isn't....

The ONE clearly defined area of expansion....and one that ALL the big boys are jumping on....

and we can't find the keys to an airplane.