trex8 wrote:Armodeen wrote:RJMAZ wrote:The 787 offers significantly better CASM at equal comfort levels. The 787 offers better comfort at equal CASM level.
The 9 abreast A330's run a decent 32" seat pitch. The 787-9 can easily run 30" seat pitch and have the same comfort levels thanks to its wider seats. That's quite a few extra seats while the 787-9 still burns less fuel.
I can definitely see AirAsia X in the future wanting to move away from the 9ab A330 and improve comfort slightly. Its currently using it to increase market share as they are in growth stage. A tight pitch 787 provides that slight upgrade.
I'm under the impression the 9ab A339 will better the 787 on CASM, with the opposite true of the (regular) 8ab A339.
Is that not the case?
An 8AB A339 has similar seat capacity to a 9AB 789 but may ( we dont really know for sure at this point without data ) have slightly higher trip costs, you go to 9 on the A339 and it should be better on CASM than a 789.
That isn’t accurate. American runs A333’s and 789’s. While they run similar seat counts at 291 and 285 respectively the 787 runs true lie flats with 30 compared to 28 business class 180 degree recline seats. It runs 21 premium economy at 38 inch pitch and 7 wide and 36 Main cabin extra at 35 pitch. The A333 runs only two rows on main cabin extra behind each bulkhead with no premium economy. The 789 is 2 feet less in length but tapers less at the back of the cabin which usually cost about 5 seats off the last 5 rows on most A333 setups.
Similarly configured at 9 wide you have cabins of about the same length. If you run all economy at same pitch in both planes your passenger figures will be virtually identical.
Most 789 run similar or lower figures to the A333 because they run more premium products up front and fewer economy seats by choice. Run the same pitch and same number of seats across and you can get maybe another row in an A333 I would think. But it about evens out due to the narrowing towards the back of the A333. Air Asia X loses 2 seats per row from 8 rows in the back. It will basically run the same number of seats.