10 rykter fra CO..

[Thomas]

. The Summer 2007 schedule will see yet another 4 or 5 new routes from EWR to Europe, of course all with the 752. All of the usual cities that have been discussed here at a.net are possibilities, with HEL and STR getting a lot of attention.

2. There is a possibility that one EWR-Europe route that is operated with the 752 will be dropped....and its not Bristol (I cannot disclose which city).

3. The two 772ERs that will be delivered to CO next year (bringing the 777 fleet to 20 airframes) are hopefully going to fly the EWR-Shanghai route if CO is granted authority for the route; if CO does not get this authority, the plan is to fly the 777s on transatlantic flights for the Summer 2007 schedule and then be used to launch a new longrange route for the Winter 2007 schedule; the "alternate city" is already established, and if this city (which I cannot disclose) does not get the 777 in 2007, it will get service once the 787s start arriving. I must say that I was suprised by the city selected.

4. Some seem to think that CO may have hurt its chances of getting the EWR-PVG route by leading the objections to the Virgin America application....it seems that CO did not make a lot of friends in DC by being so outspoken.

5. If the two new 777s fly transatlantic during the Summer of 2007, I was told that one would fly the EWR-MAD service (which has been served with the 777 on and off over the years), the second 777 would fly EWR-BRU (which was a major surprise for me)......and the 764ER that is generally flying EWR-MAD (this is the one in the Pacific config with only 20 biz first seats) would go to the EWR-MAN route and the other 764ER would fly another existing transatlantic route served by a 762ER, with the displaced 762ER going taking over a 752 route which is difficult from an operations point of view.

5. The IAH-MAD and IAD-FRA routes are will be launched once the 787s are delivered and will be among the first routes flown with the new airplanes. And, CLE-LGW is remaining seasonal for atleast another year.

6. It does seem that the AVOD IFE system on the 752s will be extended to the Y cabin next year. The timetable that I heard calls for the entire 752 fleet to have winglets, BF seating upfront, AVOD (with new PTVs in coach) within the next 14-18 months. I forgot to ask if the PTVs in coach will mean all new seats in coach, my guess is that it will. All 753s now have 24 domestic F class seats.

7. As for the 737NG orders: the latest order was made so that enough new aircraft will come on-line to retire the 733 fleet....the big discussion is which variant CO will go with. It will not be 736s or 73Gs (even if CO has some commitments for those types on the books, CO is not taking any further "smaller" 737NGs) which leaves the 738 (CO's preferred variant) and the 739ER (which could be an interesting airplane for CO's transcon flights). There has been no decision to date.

8. No one could tell me if CO will return to Maui after current flight concludes in early September. I did learn that the current IAH-LAX-OGG routing has been a big "disappointment" (their words, not mine) for CO.

9. I wanted to ask about CO Express, regional jets, the Q400 rumors, etc....but we simply ran out of time.

10. CO is getting more and more concerned with operational issues at EWR - operations at EWR during the past quarter have been difficult, but in the past few weeks, for a variety of reasons most of which are out of CO's direct control (like weather), performance at EWR has been horrible and its affecting the entire CO network.

Spesielt punkt 2 er interessant, de spekuleres veldig på andre siden hvilket rute som droppes.. følg med selv; http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/2855045/