Engine upgrades

[GL]

I was interviewing SAA's Monwabisi Kalawe and he seemed confident that there were engine upgrades available (for the Trents?) that would give them a 3-5% efficiency improvement.
It surprised me - i would have thought the cost of a new core (if that is what is required) would be prohibitive?

[Andrew Smit]

I think he is a bit over zealous with the 3-5%. I think the upgrades will probably yield around 1%, which is a lot on a JFK or PEK sector. Normally it involves a tweaking on the FCU and other software updates. If you look at what Boeing did with the PIP engine upgrade to the B748 you will see what they try and achieve.

See: http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ ... -flow-back

http://www.aviationweek.com/Article.asp ... 567125.xml

[Andrew Smit]

Ok, it looks like I'm not entirely correct. There is going to be some physical changes to engine itself

http://www.aviationweek.com/awmobile/Ar ... 29.xml&p=1

[Richard Smit]

3% - 5% is quite a big deal.

May be worth keeping the 600's for a while longer if this is the case.

Still think we should be running A332's through Dakar to the USA though. Rather use the 600's on the busy routes like LHR and FRA. Here I often see passengers being turned away because of a lack of available seats.

Another idea may to to run an A346 as SA234/5 JNB-LHR-JNB, and an A332/343 as SA236/7 JNB-LGW (Gatwick)-JNB. Then an A332/343 as SA220/1 CPT-LHR-CPT.

And an A332 JNB-ORY (Paris Orly)-JNB.

And an A332 JNB-DEL (Delhi)-JNB.

For connections out of LGW and ORY one can always team up with one of the LCCs like EastJet, Veuling or Ryanair. The intra-European sectors are short anyway and one really doesn't HAVE to have business class available. Some kind of streamlined check-in/transfer system would probably make these options pretty attractive to business travelers.

Just a few random thoughts... I don't have any hard data to support these ideas.

[evanb]

Still think we should be running A332's through Dakar to the USA though. Rather use the 600's on the busy routes like LHR and FRA. Here I often see passengers being turned away because of a lack of available seats.

The JNB-DKR-IAD route needs the extra economy class capacity that the 343 has that the 332 doesn't.

Another idea may to to run an A346 as SA234/5 JNB-LHR-JNB, and an A332/343 as SA236/7 JNB-LGW (Gatwick)-JNB. Then an A332/343 as SA220/1 CPT-LHR-CPT.

And an A332 JNB-ORY (Paris Orly)-JNB.

And an A332 JNB-DEL (Delhi)-JNB.

For connections out of LGW and ORY one can always team up with one of the LCCs like EastJet, Veuling or Ryanair. The intra-European sectors are short anyway and one really doesn't HAVE to have business class available. Some kind of streamlined check-in/transfer system would probably make these options pretty attractive to business travelers.

European routes are not doing badly because there is no demand or a lack of bums on seats but because the middle eastern carriers have pushed prices and yuields down to levels where the bum on the seat earns less money than it costs to get the bum to the destination. Operating bigger aircraft actually lowers your yield rather than increasing it, and operating to two airports in one city rather than one also increases your costs. EasyJet and Ryanair have absolutely no interest in partnerships with other airlines and creating any type of interline codeshare product. Their business is predicated on this. Vueling on the other hand are OneWorld only and are predicated on creating a lower cost base for IAG in Spain. While Gatwick is certainly better supported by low cost airlines than Heathrow, the same cannot be said for Orly versus CDG. Also, if Bombay is loosing money for SA then I don't see why DEL would be any better.