Breaking apart the order - United orders 25 A350's and 25 B787's

Ok, now I'm not working on real work, its time to do an analysis.

With a mixed order of 25 of each type of aircraft (with options for 50 more of each - so a possible 75 aircraft of each class), what is United trying to achive?

Fleet Replacement - The 747's and 767's are up for the chop in this case.

• The 747's are being replaced with Airbus A350-900's (with 11% more range than a 747-400)
  
• whilst the 767's are being replaced with Boeing 787-8's. (with a 32% increase in range)
• No 747-8's - Well lets be honest, who really wants this type? Apart from Lufthansa and Korean Air, United seems not to be in the 350 people plus market 
• No new 777's - Unsurprising as interest in the current generation equipment is slowly waning as people look to 787/A350.
  

Shrinkage - Yes - there's a lot of it.   Apart from fleet shrinkage of 10% airframes, there will be a 19% shrinkage in actual seats. That's a *lot* of seats.

Cost reduction and "greenness" - The green issue rears its head again, with alleged savings of 40% over the liftime of the frame

Both fleets also represent a chance for United to take gambles with long and thin routes - or really beef up exisit routes.

One little issue - neither fleets are due to come on stream until 2016, with delivery complete in 2019. 

That is a *lifetime* away in airline terms.

So, it's a win-win for both Boeing and Airbus?  Airbus should be feeling happy, however, the real looser is Boeing - in terms of not the aircraft ordered, but the aircraft lost to Airbus.

However, rather than being nationalist - United has done the right thing by buying aircraft suited to need... and knowing United - suited to it's pocket.