I noticed what I thought was a misprint on a flight's radar data tag a few days ago: a Delta flight coming in from Tokyo's Haneda airport was shown as a B767-300. Ever since Delta started service between LAX and Haneda last year, the route has been covered with a B777-200 or an A330-200. The other carrier on this route, All Nippon, started service with a B777-200 and now uses a B777-300. But sure enough, when the flight arrived on runway 24 right, it was a winglet-equipped B767-300. A short time later, the outbound flight was also in a B763. I thought that perhaps it was a fluke of some sort, but it's continued for about a week now. So for the moment, Delta has the smallest aircraft flying nonstop to Japan from LAX.
Delta isn't the only one down-sizing aircraft on a route:
American started service to Washington Reagan National with B757-200s, but today I saw them run a B737-800 to DCA. Permanent changes? I don't know, but it doesn't really matter. I'd much rather they run smaller aircraft than drop the route entirely.
We have heard that Delta is adding destinations out of LAX this summer. Among them, three new destinations from LAX: San Jose, Costa Rica; Bozeman, Montana; and Spokane, Washington. None of these currently receives scheduled service from LAX. Delta is also renovating Terminal Five. For more about Delta at LAX, check out this article on Airnation.net.
American is also adding destinations this summer. New destinations from LAX will be Hartford, Connecticut, and Redmond, Oregon. See this article on Airnation.net for more about American's additional flights.
In additional to the new destination cities, both American and Delta will be starting service to cities that already receive airline service from LAX. Among them, Delta will be adding Boston (already served by American, JetBlue, United, and Virgin America); Nashville, Tennessee (already served by American and Southwest); San Jose, California (already served by American, Southwest, and United); and Seattle, Washington (already served by Alaska, United, and Virgin America). Meanwhile, American is adding Columbus, Ohio (already served by Delta); Indianapolis, Indiana (already served by Delta); and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (already served by United and US Airways).
There may well be other changes looming that we haven't heard about yet. The summer travel season is traditionally a busy time for us, and it sounds like this year will be busier than last year. Just to make things interesting, we start taking our furlough days on Sunday, the 21st. There have been plenty of dire predictions made already, so I won't bother. We are expecting to have severely reduced traffic flows because of reduced staffing. How reduced is yet to be determined - check back in eight or nine days . . .
As American gets more 737-823's they are slowly phasing out the 757's. There is little difference in capacity and the cost savings of flying the 737 are significant.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I'll miss the 757's but not as much as AA's 767-223ER's when they're replaced by the trans con A321's coming later this year.
Uggh - they're putting A321s on those routes?! Although I have to admit that I'm surprised that they still operate the short B767s; nearly everyone else (except Continental, now United) already has gotten rid of theirs (at least at LAX). Not looking forward to more long-haul Airbuses, though. Not my favorite.
DeleteFor quite some time, the B757 has been a favorite - nearly every B757 was still in service, and any that became available were quickly snapped up. I was surprised recently to see a Trade-A-Plane ad for ETOPS B757s, offered for under $10 million. Boeing has been marketing the stretched B737s as replacements for the B757 fleet, and now that is starting to happen. A number of the B757s are going to FedEx, who is using them to replace their B727s. UPS has had B757s for some time, and other cargo operators are also bringing them into their fleets. American (and Alaska before them) are also using B738s to replace their old MD-80 fleets; Alaska's are long gone, but I still see a few American MD-80s each day.
For ATC, both of these replacements are advantageous. The B752 and B762 are both wake turbulence aircraft, and require additional spacing for the following aircraft. Neither the B738 nor the A321 have this burden. That said, I'll still be sorry to see the big Boeings go.