Tailscraper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 864 times:
Rumours circulating here in DXB about EK possibly purchasing a few 737's/A320's for doing some short-haul routes to Kuwait/Iran/Saudi etc.
Debate over the issue rages at:www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/Forum1/HTML/006035.html
Amir From Syria, joined Dec 1999, 1254 posts, RR: 13 Reply 2, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 775 times:
this is strange indeed . Currently EK is mostly flying the A313 or sometimes the A300-600 on such routes. However i doubt that they want such new aircrafts to concentrate on point to point traffic (Though the yields within the gulfregion are still high!), maybe they want to create more feeder routes to feed their backbone routes to EU and the Fareast.
Don't forget one thing, the A313 is damn difficult to fly in black margins! it's a pain in the a... Though i love this aircraft, they should get rid of it. At the same time it will be difficult to find a replacement offering such Cargo capacity like the A310 or A300, EK has a huge share of cargo business especially when compared with GF,KU or other regional carriers.
Tailscraper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 9 hours ago) and read 775 times:
Apparently, the A310/300's are just causing overcapacity on short sectors; EK are also using free 777's on sectors to Riyadh and Sana'aa at half-capacity;
Regular, last-minute changes are a daily occurence, and see EK A330's normally reserved for European/East African operations, operating pathetic 45-minute hops to Dharan, Manama etc, at a quarter of the capacity.
As for the PTV's, I don't know. Perhaps any short-haul equipmnet will only operate in a J-Y class configuration, but that doesn't eliminate J/Y-class IFE on EK flights.
FlyAA757 From United States of America, joined Jun 1999, 997 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 8 hours ago) and read 766 times:
Judging by the abundance of press releases EK generates with each new 777(they do this EVERY time they get a new a/c!), and the lack of press releases and info about the 330, I predict a small order for 737-800s or 900s. The A320 is an still a good option, but I think the 321 is out because of poor hot performance.
I-DAVI From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 5, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 767 times:
Even IF they were to buy shorthaul aircraft they sure as hell wont be considering the 738.
Tailscraper, what is your source?
Both EK and GF make a sizable amount of their money transporting workers from the Indian subcontinent and Asia back and forth from the Gulf. It's a very hit and miss game as to which flights will be empty and which will be maximum capacity. I've been on an absolutely packed GF A340 and a totally empty B763. But they need to have those aircraft onhand to deal with the ebbs and flows. Assigning an A320 to the route may restore profitability on slow days but will also reduce transfer/transit traffic accordingly. It probably makes more sense to keep the half-empty 777's going....and some destinations such as Jeddah, Cairo are always extremely popular.
Buying such small aircraft would shortchange the airline in the long run. It would also have to compete with other Gulf airlines who exclusively use widebodies.
Tailscraper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 6, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 762 times:
My source is the Gulf News Newspaper, the UAE's quality daily. It appeared in the Saturday Travel section, under "Emirates in search of hopper jets". I did say it was a "rumour", and besides, a number of EK pilots at a site I included in my first post, have acknowledged the rumours...
Amir From Syria, joined Dec 1999, 1254 posts, RR: 13 Reply 10, posted (13 years 4 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 752 times:
Hi I-DAVI
what makes you so sure that there are no A320's with PTV???
After all it's a matter of the airline willing to pay for this. I have been on an Qatar Airways 727-200 (August 98) before they retired them in favor of A320 and guess what i saw, PTV !!!!!!! i wouldn't belive it at first, then they run a short program on this ultra short flight (it was from Doha to Dubai)
Amir From Syria, joined Dec 1999, 1254 posts, RR: 13 Reply 12, posted (13 years 4 months 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 746 times:
Hi Bo,
unfortunately QR (Qatar Airways) is not flying the 727's anymore, they replaced them with the A320. I have no idea where they went to. The interior was really
state of the art, i have spoken to a QR executive at that time who told me that they spent around 3 Mio. US$on each one of their 4 727's! on the interior as to bridge the time until they get their A320 which they finally got last year. They were establishing themselvs as a quality carrier (actually they suceeded by getting a code share with LH to MUC, i flew them once MUC-DOH with the A306 in Biz. it was really good) so they were trying to limit the bad image of still flying a 727 by having its interior very modern.
You would have never guessed that you are sitting in a 727! except for the noise of course which i enjoyed very much! the flight to DXB was too short though!
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