Hamster wrote:Have heard that Virgin are in talks with a leasing company to lease some second hand 777's, so they may not go for new.
Wouldn't be the first time either if VS go for second-hand aircraft. Not that there's anything wrong with that as availability and price can often be attractive over buying new. It's also not unknown for big carriers to do this as well: DL have a long track record of buying second-hand aircraft and BA have acquired some second-hand A320s recently to be based at LGW to allow withdrawal of their 737-400s.
AmexVflyer wrote:here do seem to be quite a few out there on the 2nd hand market, ideally the 77W variant. In fact from 2017 we may even see the 1st few 2nd hand A380's come onto the market as SQ's could possibly come on the market if they don't choose to extend the leases.
I thought some of Malaysia Airlines' A380s were already available? I'm sure there's also a handful of white tail A380s available brand new from Airbus after Skymark went bust.
With the 777-300ER's, I expect the first few to become available from Emirates towards the end of the decade as they take delivery of more A380's, 777X's and they make their mind up on whether to order A350's again or some 787-10's.
AmexVflyer wrote:The 747 leases start expiring in 2019 so in order to secure delivery slots with whatever manufacturer they elect to go for they will need to get in soon I would imagine.
Leases can always be extended (that's what Thomson did with some of their 767s whilst awaiting their first 787s). In any case, I can't see a large queue of airlines wanting their hands on circa-20 year old 744's come the end of the decade, so if they needed to stay for a bit longer beyond the end of the decade I'm sure the leaseco can do a deal.