Economics of 100-seaters ‘don’t work’ for United: president

United Airlines president Scott Kirby says the economics of a 100-seat aircraft “just don’t work” for the carrier’s mainline fleet. “We basically need to spread mainline costs over the greater number of seats in the bigger airplanes,” he said. United is in the midst of a fleet review covering both its existing aircraft and order book. Moves since the review began include converting its order for 65 Boeing 737-700s to larger variants and accelerating the retirement of its 20 remaining Boeing 747-400s to Q4. Prior to Kirby's joining the airline in Aug 2016, executives repeatedly discussed a need for a small mainline narrowbody aircraft to close the gap between the 76-seat regional jets in its feeder fleet and the smallest mainline aircraft with around 128 seats. <br/>