Along these same lines, LH operates all 3 models of the A320 family. Their A319’s and A320 are CFM56 powered, which goes along with their fleet being mainly GE powered throught their history. Yet their A321’s are IAE V2500 powered. I find this very strange, based on commonality plus their loyalty to GE. Anyone have any idea why?

SIA, afterall, being an economically challenged airline, didn’t have enough cashflow to buy brand new 777’s, needed to trade in older aircraft in order to finance the deal.

I couldn’t see why SIA got rid of their A340’s, either. Theirs were pretty much the same age as SIA’s, yet they ditched them in favor of 777’s, where they could have easily augmented each other in their fleet, in my opinion. Especially in terms of quasi-fleet commonality, with them taking delivery of A340-500’s, in the near future.

Only Boeing uses the numerical designation for specific customers, like BA for instance, was mentioned with the number ’36’ being theirs. Airbus doesn’t use that, however. Their designation, I believe, refers to a model type, with engines being a factor, amongst other things. For instance, A CFM56 powered A320 has a different designation than a IAE V2500 powered model.

T5, why on earth would LH or AF fly a long-haul flight, via LHR, when their own hubs are an hour or so away? What purpose would this serve, even if they were allowed to do so? I can understand SIA using LHR as a stop, en route from SIN to YYZ. Or Air India using it as a stop from DEL to ORD and JFK. Those are entirely different situations, however.

I like the 1st one, a lot. That would be a wise choice. Plus, the bare metal fuselage, saves money in the long run, in these fincially troubled times.

I don’t know if there is any correlation between those 2. Juan Trippe having resigned is a pivotal move in Pan Am history, albeit a negative one. Trippe was instumental in designing of the 747 in which Pan Am was the launch customer, and to a lesser extent the 707, in which again Pan Am was again the launch customer. Pan Am was one of the original airlines to fly around the world, plus serve nearly every continent. They never had a huge domestic network to feed into their international network. Back in the day, it didn’t matter much. Once ‘deregulation’ came around and the advent of the hub-and-spoke system, they were pretty much screwed. They started selling off key routes, and that was that. Delta got their European routes(except LHR) and their Kennedy hub. United got their pacific routes, and Heathrow slots. American got their Latin American routes. End of story.

Funding for Education in the state of California has been cut by 50% the last 2 years. 10,000 layoffs are currently in the process. With all this money being spent on the war, and seemlingly very little spent on Education, can’t we set some aside for these airlines in trouble? If AA, UA and DL go out of business, the airline industry in the U.S. as we know it, is screwed, period. Last time I checked, Southwest don’t fly to Sydney, or to any other international desinations, for that matter.