After nearly a year, the Federal Aviation Administration has signed off on a plan that allows United Airlines to restore service on its Boeing 777-200 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines.
777-200 With Pratt & Whitney Engines Will Return To United Airlines Active Fleet This Month
On February 20, 2021, a fan-blade failure resulted in an engine failure on a United 777-200 with P&W engines traveling from Denver (DEN) to Honolulu (HNL). Nearly a year after the incident, we will see these aircraft return to service, after the FAA introduced three remediation steps to reduce the chances of a repeat incident:
- strengthening engine cowlings (nacelle inlet modifications)
- enhanced engine fan-blade inspection
- inspection of other systems and components (including thrust-reverser components)
If you are interested in a much more technical explanation of the modifications, Aviation Week offers excellent coverage.
Raytheon, which owns Pratt & Whitney, noted that remedial measures could “be performed in the field, on or near-wing by trained personnel.”
Broadly, however, the FAA still noted “further action is necessary to address the airplane-level implications and unsafe condition resulting from in-flight engine fan blade failures.”
Put simply, the FAA wants to ensure there are safety measures in place that will reduce risk should future fan blade failures occur. The planes with PW4000 engines were never actually grounded in the USA by regulators; the move to do so was voluntary by United.
Expect to see the return of these aircraft, which offer a dense configuration of 28 seats in business class and 336 seats in economy class, on flights to Hawaii and select transcontinental flights. Most of these aircraft do not have individual screens in economy class.
Speaking of the directives in late December, when they were still under proposal, United Airlines called them “a good outcome for our industry and United customers” and added “many of the affected engines have already undergone these proposed inspections. We expect these aircraft to safely rejoin our fleet [in early 2022].”
CONCLUSION
Expect to see a return to of these P&W 777-200 aircraft, which is bittersweet for customers who have enjoyed the more spacious 777-300ER in its place. But the restoration of this aircraft to the active United fleet marks an important vote of confidence for PW4000 engines.
image: Meisterflieger
I am hoping that this doesn’t get put back on all the routes it was previously on. Hawaii really shouldn’t be operated by it, nor should premium transcon routes. This plane is great for short domestic hops and is a treat to get a lie flat seat on a short route, but it is dreadful on a premium route like EWR to LAX. I’m really hoping we see it on some different routes.
It’s also worth noting that about half of the grounded planes are in the domestic configuration but the other half are in a Polaris configuration.
Unfortunately it is highly likely that is exactly where their high density 777-200s will end up at. I believe United has 19 high density 777-200s and the remainder of the PW fleet is 777-200ER with the international Polaris layout. I think you will see these aircraft once again on LAX-HNL, SFO-HNL, SFO-OGG, DEN-HNL, DEN-OGG, IAH-HNL, ORD-HNL and ORD-OGG, as well as ORD-SFO, EWR-SFO, EWR-LAX, IAD-SFO and IAD-LAX.
With so many seats on those high density 777-200s I can only imagine how much lower the cost per seat mile is on the 777-200.
Question, I scheduled my wife and I for a First class “Currently” Polaris seats in July 18th from ORD-HNL(United 219) and it’s on a 777-300ER, Will they then replace this flight with a HD 200 Non-Polaris, if they do that will definitely p@ss me off. What is your take? How can they take 50 First class passengers assigned in 1-2-1 configuration, and move them to a 28 Dorm room Style cabin? I’m trying to avoid this. What are your thoughts?
If that happens, you can try to move to a different routing – it will be up to the discretion of the agent…and some will refuse, so ask nicely/gently so if you get a gruff one, they do not leave a negative remark on your reservation.
Will anyone actually fly this plane? I feel like people might try to avoid it after seeing what happened in Denver last year.
Yes, people will fly it. Sure, most everyone reading this blog checks what type of plane their on, but the average flyer does not. Remember when they said nobody would fly the Max and they would have to rebuild confidence by adding flexibility around the Max? So much for that. Everyone flew it no problem.
You know the PW777 are not only consist of domestic 77G/M/O right ? In the case of 77N/U, no matter seat map or you step inside the plane, it is identical to 77E, how many people can read registration number or nose number, I know that but seriously do you even know ???
People will fly in it and there will be no problems getting it back in service. I had the pleasure of flying this magnificent airplane gor 12 years!
Are people avoiding flying on the 737MAX which is now call the 737-8 or 737-9? Are people avoiding Southwest after a woman was partially sucked out a window when a fan blade broke off one of their 737s and shattered the window the passenger was seated next too? I think the FAA has gone to great lengths to make sure these aircraft are safe and as the article pointed out it was United who voluntarily grounded all of their PW 777s so there is no way United would return these aircraft to service if it wasn’t safe to do so.
Why is UA going back to only 28 premium cabin seats to Hawaii when they have been selling 50-70 over the past year on the long haul flights?
If anything, the small J cabins should be going on business heavy routes, since most companies no longer pay for J. J is a premium leisure cabin these days
Because they can see more than half of the seats and unsold and filled with free upgrades from elites, there are flights with even silver able to get upgraded. Btw, these planes flew ps routes prior before the pandemic but not just Hawaii, so don’t worry about that, it will go back to ps routes as well, as there are 22 of the 77G/M/O
There are no CPUs on LONG HAUL Hawaii flights. Not even to PP
CPUs are only from SFO/LAX. Not from DEN/IAH/ORD/IAD/EWR
What does PP stand for? Haven’t seen that acronym yet.
Derek: although they might be able to sell 50 or 70 to Hawaii, remember there’s an opportunity cost there as well if they can sell those premium cabin seats elsewhere for more.
However, companies these days simply do not pay for J. Those days are long gone.
What UA should be doing is increasing prices in J to Hawaii. Even F would probably work to places like HNL and OGG. You see the hotel prices there that people are willing to pay? Those are the true premium markets these days
I think UA already charges too much for J to Hawaii in their inferior J product (the dreaded coffins in 2-4-2). I’ve found better deals to Hawaii in J on AA in a true international business configuration. I’ll pick AA every time.
As long as they ditch that horrid pastrami sandwich! (seems that is finally happening next week)
I avoid these like the plague. 10 across in coach and the worst long haul C in the sky …. I’ll pass. I connect on the 737 on the west coast going to Hawaii rather than fly this nonstop to HNL . I was hoping they were gone for good.
I won’t book the high density configuration planes for anything other than a shorter domestic hub to hub flight. Hawaii, premium transcon, and international flights are out of the question. How much longer will UA fly 2-4-2 J?
I agree. I am happy to fly it hub to hub, but I think flying it on Hawaii or transcon is a disgrace! I don’t think they will put it back on transcon, seems that Premium Plus has been successful and they want to continue that. And even though it’s scheduled on Hawaii this summer, who knows if we will actually see it on Hawaii. Think the current setup has worked well and they might just leave it.
I see the bitter in the return of these planes, but what’s the sweet? Speaking from the passenger’s perspective.
I find those business class seats the softest in the system. I actually love flying them! Plus, hopefully this will lead to more routes flown.
The 2-4-2 seats are fine
There’s just not enough of them, and there is no PP. That is the issue with the domestic 777-200
As a Manila based UA 1K, I cringe to think these will again be servicing Guam. The Polaris seats from GUM-HNL-SFO/LAX have been amazing.
Im not a Triple 7 guy and never was.
I believe the affected 777s were the older, legacy United triples operated prior to the merger with Continental. CALs Triples were newer and had the updated engines.
Oh well, keep in mind that the rest of the airplane did a good job bringing those folks right back to DEN. I wouldn’t want to lose an engine at DEN at V1, it’s a high altitude airport.
However like all airlines other than my 737s, the airplane helps the pilot with an engine failure by adding rudder automatically into the good engine side to minimize yaw.
The 777 is a very safe airplane.