Alright, so I have 100 RI on my route to Tokyo Narita and I want to do a couple of cargo routes. I am torn between 2 aircraft, the 747-800F and the 777 Freighter. The 747 holds close to 300k lbs of cargo, and the 777 holds close to 225k lbs. The 747 burns about 2,000 more fuel than the 777, and has less range. I already have a few long haul 777 in my fleet. Should I just stick with the 777, or would the increased cargo capacity of the 747 offset my costs enough to make it worth it?
If you already fly 777s then I'd go for the 777 freighters, personally. Much better for fleet commonality.
Absolutely, stick to what you already fly.
Plus:
- except in special cases, you want to fly only one type of wide bodies
- in a BW it doesn't really matter but in a "real" GW you'd prefer something still big bu somewhat smaller, so you won't suffer too much from potential competition through frequency.
The 777 would definitely be better, even if you didn't already have any. Once (if) your 777 are operating at near 100% capacity you can start to hike the prices quite a lot. Just a 10% increase in price would probably give you 30% more profit (in general, on a typical route) and make you more money than the 747 would on the same route, carrying 35% more cargo. This is because that extra profit comes with virtually no rise in fixed costs.
And you have to factor in the maintenance costs as well as just the fuel burn. These are 25% to 30% higher for a 747.
The only exception would be if you can get used 747 for virtually givewaway prices and 777 were VERY expensive. It also depends somewhat on availability - maybe you can have 30x 747 now but would have to wait 2 or 3 years to get that many 777.