China Eastern is the latest carrier to operate the B777 at LAX. Not only is it a new airplane, it's wearing a new livery with a new version of the swallow. A reader alerted me to the coming of the first one this past Thursday. I didn't catch the arrival, but here it is on its way out to Shanghai.
The B777 has nearly as many seats (316) as the A346 it replaces (322). China Eastern only had five of the big Airbuses, but plans to acquire twenty B777s. Unlike the B777, which is becoming ubiquitous at LAX, we don't see that many A340-600s. China Eastern only brought in one per day; we still see one each from Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic; and during the summer months we sometimes have another from Iberia.
The China Eastern A346s actually left the LAX scene last year; in the interim China Eastern has been using A330-200s on the Shanghai - Los Angeles route. For a time, we were getting two per day:
China Eastern, Maximum Eurowhite!
ReplyDeleteThe old livery, with a multicolor cheatline is reassuring, befitting an airline with history.
Ooh, a Brasilia on pic Pmu1160834.JPG! What destinations do they fly to?
The Airbus A340-600 remains my favourite airliner, so elegant. Four engines for long-haul, and only Rolls-Royces! I just checked (on Wikipedia ;) that only 97 were built, plus 34 -500s. By contrast 527 Boeing 777-300ER have been delivered, with another 237 on order. In two years or so, it will outrank all other passenger versions of that jet. A stunning succsss for Boeing.
--Filip
Yes, I too thought about the Eurowhite thing when I saw this. Everybody seems to be getting away from the cheatlines. Perhaps they'll make a comeback in the next generation . . .
DeleteFor a few more months, we will have Brasilias. SkyWest flies them as United Express, but has announced that they will be retiring their E120s by May of this year. I know of at least one destination (Carlsbad-Palomar) that will lose United Express service when this happens.
As mentioned, we do still see A346s from a few European carriers, and A343s from several others (Tahiti, Philippine, and Swiss come immediately to mind).