American Airlines’ Airbus A330s that were (prematurely, in my opinion) retired at the start of the coronavirus pandemic will be returning to the skies… but for a different airline!
Continue reading: Cool: Vietnam’s Sun PhuQuoc Airways Acquiring Ex-American Airbus A330s
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It made sense at the time. Nobody thought the vaccine would get made and distributed as far and as quickly as it did, and that travel would rebound as quickly as it did.
Scott Kirby and United Airlines were the outlier who got grief for keeping what was thought at the time to be too many planes on the books.
People charged with making these billion dollar decisions don't do things nonsensically. You just didn't understand it.
It was to serve many small cities at the expense of a few large ones.
“Let DL and UA have JFK and SFO,” said American. “We’ll dominate in ‘up and coming’ markets!”
Turns out up and coming markets aren’t profitable because the big money flies JFK/SFO, like, exclusively. Equity partners at top law firms don’t take clients in El Paso!
The JW is supposed to be wonderful there. Maybe too low class for you these days lol but check out the reviews.
Once it became clear that long-haul travel demand was returning, why didn't AA re-activate the A330-200s and some of their other wide-body aircraft? Other airlines did that, especially with A380s.
AA's initial decision to retire these aircraft may have been the right thing to do at the time, but there is no reason why they could not have reversed course when circumstances changed.
Doom to fail big time! Phu Quoc is a low standard, poor quality, unpopular destination in communist Vietnam like China Hainan island . Go once you will not come again. Better go to other popular islands in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
I recall Thai were supposed to pick up some ex-AA A332s, but the BOD denied the lease as it's older and less fuel efficient that contradicted the airline's post-restructuring strategy to simply its fleet down to 4 types.
Greenie, please do tell us more about how you like to 'dominate'... the competition!
Phu Quoc is a lovely and beautiful island that is a great value with lots of new US flagged resorts and good air connections to many places in Southeast Asia. It's also visa-free for folks who would otherwise need a visa to enter Vietnam.
"It was to serve many small cities at the expense of a few large ones."
Your Google ability is second to none. That's why you're an equity partner at Sidley Ropes Skadden Shearman Piper Baker Winston Covington and Debevoise pulling down quadrillions of dollars a week.
FUN FACT:
Vietnam Airlines' route from San Francisco to Ho Chi Minh City (SFO-SGN) nonstop transpacific flight, is *the* single lowest yielding overseas flight segment departing the USA, as per Cirium records ending 4Q25.
That flight has 1/6th of the yield of the highest overseas flight (EWR-SIN, SQ) despite being a shorter distance.
Worst performer by a US carrier is LAX-HKG, UA.
Worst performer over the Atlantic is DFW-HEL, AY.
"How does one access these records?"
$$$$, and lots of it.
Cirium will sell the data to anyone, but it's like the price of a new car. Easily $25,000 or more. I don't know the current rates, but I'm sure airlines and research firms get some kind of corporate discount prices tough.
Just in Phu Quoc. Ben, it would be a great family trip for you + kids — lots to do.
How does one access these records? Fascinating information
One of our clients paid for Cirium last year, for some research they wanted done. I don't know what price they negotiated, but the market price for 2025 was $31,000.
Probably be worse this year, with effect from all the upheavals in the Middle East.
So if Western Refining was looking for new representation your firm wouldn't be interested?
while I would love to carry on with dunking on AA, it says something to me that it has taken 6 years to find someone willing to take these relatively "young" A332.
An AA hit job made to look like a new Vietnam airline lovefest. C’mon.
I still like AA. Yes, they are a distant 3rd. No, it would be bad for everyone if they were to disappear.
And yes, I doubt another new Vietnam air carrier will survive.
"People charged with making these billion dollar decisions don't do things nonsensically. You just didn't understand it." Or, they really screwed up. Yes, you can make the right decision given available information and have it go pear shaped. You can also really make a terrible decision. I don't imagine you are smart enough to know the difference.
Seems strange to me, too. One would think with their history, DL would have loved to buy 330s with the lower price than new. But, maybe AA wasn't willing to part with them at a market-adjusted price.
Just flew a VietJet A330 (formerly AirAsia) from SGN to SYD a couple weeks ago. My seat felt more spacious than the fancy CX A350-1000 that got me from YYZ to HKG.
Ben, I love how the changes are minimal when planes are handed to airlines in Vietnam. It reminds me of good times.
@ConcordeBoy
In June, Delta will start flying LAX-HKG. How will Delta make it work when United is not performing well on that route? It seems passengers prefer Cathay Pacific which flies thrice daily on this route.
May be Tim Dunn can explain to us how Delta will survive on this route.
Flew a flight from Hanoi to HCM and they were pleasant to fly. Hope they don't go the way of Bamboo and Wow by expanding too fast
I had the same thoughts, but how did even take them that long to not-go to TG?
Do we think TG got a better offer with the China Southern 787s?
Few from SGN-HAN J on them last week and it was outstanding from start to finish, the best domestic, and one of the best short haul flights I have ever been on. A really well thought out and executed proposition. Very nice lounge with personal service and a solid à la carte menu. Onboard service was also great, individually plated and presented 3 courses, including a very delicious salmon and caviar appetizer. I hope they can expand successfully, would love to be able to fly them long haul.
It's not just about yields. Sometimes the carrier must fly certain routes to keep corporate accounts happy...politics and other unsexy things that people on here do not wish to hear about play into this ha. Low(lower)crap "yields" does not mean "no revenue". Cathay is unbeatable HKG to the US. UA is a much bigger and more established name in HK than DL for sure...so it will be interesting. DL will do as well to HKG as they did on LHR-LAX. The people of Hong Kong are image-conscious, same as Londoners who will fly VS over DL. HKG/London SAME. Watch! DL does well when throwing a bunch of its metal at the Skyteam hubs. ICN/LHR/AMS and CDG. Anyway, lets see what happens.
How will Delta make it work when United is not performing well on that route? It seems passengers prefer Cathay Pacific
I have no idea why DL is starting the route. My suspicion is that they have a major corporate client who's demanding the service, and losing that client would incur more losses throughout the network than they'd lose by just flying the route.
Similar for UA actually. UA doesn't have an aircraft that can realistically fly to HKG from east of the Rockies, with Russian airspace closed: so they can't resume EWR-HKG and ORD-HKG, and had to put all their capacity into their California hubs, or risk losing business from their east coast clients.
Also hurts UA in that it's taking passengers from LAX to BKK on the same aircraft operating LAX-HKG, often for a lower price (at a farther distance) than just the LAX-HKG segment itself.
Truly at a loss as to why they didn't "just" go for a nonstop LAX-BKK (or even SFO-BKK, despite lower demand) and utilize TG's connections; rather than resume it 1stop via HKG, considering how poorly they're performing that way.
Low(lower)crap "yields" does not mean "no revenue"
Sure, though at the yield they're getting, there's not a chance in hell that they're making money on a per segment basis.
It's literally the 3rd lowest yielding overseas longhaul flight departing the continental US, the lowest segment in UA's entire system, and the lowest by any USA carrier. It's garbage, in every sense of the word. IAH-SYD is right behind it. Those are far and away UA's absolute stinkers.
Though before anyone gets the wrong idea, UA has some total goldmines as well: IAH-GIG and IAH-GEO absolutely *print* money.
Even in the mid-range: UA's IAD-CPT treads water, but it still doing much better than DL's ATL-CPT.