United have changed their mind. First of all, because their 787s will be coming at a slower rate than anticipated, second because they deem Japan a more important market than The Netherlands.MR_Boeing wrote:Also important to note, United announced the initial shedule of their 787's:
Starting in October with domestic services out of Houston to United hubs. Then, as from 4 December the first international route will be launched...to Amsterdam (daily on Houston-AMS):On January 3 daily Los Angeles-Tokyo Narita will start, 7 January is the start date for 5 weekly Houston-Lagos, 4 February start of daily Houston-LHR, Houston-Los Angeles will also get sheduled 787 service as from February, on March 30th daily Los Angeles-Shanghai will start and Denver-Tokyo Narita daily as from March 31 and Houston-Denver sheduled service as from April.Code: Select all
UA058 IAH1545 – 0815+1AMS 788 D UA059 AMS1000 – 1345IAH 788 D
Therefore, the launch of IAH-AMS (Houston-Amsterdam) by 787 is postponed from 4 December to 24 February 2013, and the initial international route for United's 787 will be LAX-NRT (Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita).
By curiosity, I have looked at the seat map of United's 787, and I was horrified to discover that the economy class will have a 3-3-3 seating. I then looked at other airlines, and I found out that only ANA and JAL have the 2-4-2 seating that was initially in Boeing's mind. LOT, United, Norwegian have already disclosed their 3-3-3 seating. Air India and Ethiopian Airlines don't say anything in their outdated website, neither does Qatar Airways. I would think that Ethiopian will behave correctly, because their 777 is still 3-3-3 when many airlines like Air France/KLM have switched to 3-4-3.
Does anyone have a clue on how the existing and future 787s will be configured in Y class ?