[TRIP REPORT] United Airlines Boeing 767-300 Newark-London

Airline: United Airlines
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER
Departure Airport: Newark Liberty Intl. Airport (EWR)
Arrival Airport: London Heathrow Intl. Airport (LHR)
Seat: 35A
Flight Time: 6 hours and 12 minutes
Flight Number: UA940

[upaviation]

Keep up the great work man! I’ve been subbed to you since you started! Great video!

[ahyanremtulla]

Hi, great trip report! About your question concerning the configuraton of these 767's: The London to New York/Newark run (and vice versa) is a massive money making route for both British and American Airlines. This is because this route you flew is what's known as a 'high frequency, low yeald route'. Essentially, this means that the LHR-EWR/JFK route runs like a bus service. (Have as many flights as possible but with relatively empty aircraft ie. emphisis on frequency) In addition to this, this route is also 'premium heavy'. Many business people cross the Atlantic daily thus the need of an aircraft with a high Business Class seating configuration. As a result, United have elected to configure their smallest widebody (767) with half business class and roughly 1/4 premium economy. This leaves their 767's with very little 'standard economy' as there simply isn't enough revenue to be made here compared to business class.

There are two ways in which this is seen with these 767's on this route:
1) The EWR-LHR-EWR service is operated 6x daily. This clearly shows how important this route is for frequency!
2) The 6x EWR-LHR-EWR services are all operated by very sparsely-configured 767-300ER's. So why the 767? Well, the 767 has more than enough range for the route but when configured business-heavy (in terms of seating) becomes the ideal aircraft for this route. It's a widebody so brings good revenue due to good load factors (something a bigger aircraft couldn't due to operating costs exceeding revenue received on this service) but also, the 767 isn't small either so the route is still profitable if load factors were to be low on certain days! This is why Delta too operated their 767's but mainly the longer 767-400 due to it being able to carry more business seats.

This is United's issue with the 767 however. In my opinion, it's the perfect aircraft for the route however, like you experienced, it's not the youngest aircraft or the most efficient (slower cruise, higher fuel burn) out there so suffers a lot from mechanical/technical delays. In fact, it is quite usual to see United 767-400's here at LHR due to the -300's going tech! Not to mention they're pushing 3 decades of service with the airline. However, United know about these issues but simply don't know what aircraft to replace them with: The 787-8 is a bit bigger than the 767-300 so cutting margins fine on this route and the newly introduced A321 XLR is too small to operate into LHR. You can almost say that the 767 is too perfect at the EWR-LHR service! On the other hand, consider yourself lucky having flown on a 767 as there are not many left in passenger service!
Anyways, I hoped this answered your question!!
s of seating) becomes the ideal aircr

[MatheusOGplayer]

6:38 OMG THIS IS THE WORST YEAR FOR UNITED