Re: US closing another midpacific airfield

[Raymond Chuang]

This is not as big an issue as it used to be. Remember, the Boeing 777-300ER
will be certified with ETOPS 240-minute certification, and Boeing wants as
much as ETOPS 330-minute certification fairly soon after the 773ER enters
service.

This level of certification will allow NZ to fly from AKL to LAX in almost a
straight line on a 777-300ER. NZ could get the A340-600, but it's more
likely NZ will insist on the A340-600HGW (higher gross weight) version that
allows more fuel capacity.

--
Raymond Chuang
Sacramento, CA USA

[Will Newman]

Raymond Chuang wrote:
>
> This is not as big an issue as it used to be. Remember, the Boeing 777-300ER
> will be certified with ETOPS 240-minute certification, and Boeing wants as
> much as ETOPS 330-minute certification fairly soon after the 773ER enters
> service.

Woopty doo. What about EXISTING flights on 767s and 737s ? Who, of the
airlines who fly So-Pac will have that big fancy 777 ?

Will Boeing work to have the 767-300 and the 737-NG certified for those 330
minute ETOPS ? Or does Boeing expect that these closuses will motivate
existing airlines to dump their 767s and 737s and replace them with fancy new
777s and hope that somehow, demand to fill all those extra seats will
materialize miraculously ?

Air NZ isn't going to start running 777s or 340s on routes that don't justify
such a large plane.
Air Pacific isn't going to start using its 747s on the routes currently
operated on 737s. And what will all the smaller Pacific airlines do with their
small fleets of 737s if those can't fly etops anymore ?

In the end, perhaps they exoect south-pacific airlines to get together and
fund continued operation of the atol airstring to allow etops to continue
south of honolulu. And I woudl venture that HNL may also participate in that
funding since it stands to lose traffic , flights and revenu if etops is no
longer possible between so-pac and hawaii.