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SAA B744's

Pilot21 From Ireland, joined Oct 1999, 1378 posts, RR: 2
Posted (12 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 593 times:

Just a quick question for anybody in the know with South African Airways. Their B744 fleet started out being RR powered aircraft, but then in 1998 they got two P&W/GE (can't remember which) aircraft. I think they are new from Boeing, but surely it doesn't make sense to operate two different engine types on one type of aircraft. They may have got a good deal from Boeing because of the Asian crisis, but long-term, are the savings they made on buying them going to be lost on operating the two different types.

Cheers

Pilot21

Aircraft I've flown: A300/A310/A320/A321/A330/A340/B727/B732/B733/B734/B735/B738/B741/B742/B744/DC10/MD80/IL62/Bae146/AR

1 replies: All unread, jump to last

Udo From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR:
Reply 1, posted (12 years 10 months 3 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 568 times:

SAA got these two GE-powered aircraft because an Asian customer didn't want them any longer (due to the crisis).
It's not too unusual to fly two different kinds of engine. Air New Zealand has three out of its eight B744 powered by RR (the others GE) and Qantas bought three used B744 with GE as well, despite their large RR fleet. And though all of their original B763 are GE powered, the ones bought from BA have RR.
Another example is Virgin which flies both PW and RR on their B742.
The need for capacity is sometimes rated higher than the problem of different engines.

Regards
Udo

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