Message posted by Don on January 09, 2008 at 16:28:27 PST:
The last news I had was they will continue to fly the current 737-200 fleet until they require upgrades. Having said that, that doesn't mean the upgrades will be 737-700's. More likely they will be 737-300's. The current deliveries at Boeing for the 700's are all being bought up by the Airlines. The newer dreamliner version of the 737 is due soon thus the production of 700's will cease. I doubt the Janet fleet will be granted brand new aircraft. Perhaps used c-40's which is a 700 but that would require costs like pilot type ratings and mechanic systems training. The conversion to the -300 would be easier if they could find some low time planes. Who knows if an airline goes under at the current cost of gas maybe there will be some planes available? In the end the current -200's however old are low in time, high in cycles only. That's a good thing for airplanes. Probably 10 more years in them.
If they were to find -300's they should enter a Power by the hour contract with GE/CFM they could save millions in operational costs right there. Southwest is retiring 10 aircraft this year, they would be well suited for Janet operations with little costs to convert the pilots type ratings and mechanic training.
Just paint them white and keep flying them. But what do I know??
In Reply to: Janet Fleet upgrade? posted by Maple38 on January 07, 2008 at 22:11:45 PST:
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