Dear Ron
United's 777 reliability and performance has been a major disappointment during the past few months. I am very concerned, and would like to ensure that Boeing and United are taking any and all actions necessary to fix these significant problems as soon as possible. The airplane Mechanical Schedule Reliability rate over the past two months has been approximately double what we expected. In addition, the number of pilot write-ups and flight cancellations, as well as the airplane out-of-service time, has been intolerable.
There are a large number of issues that need to be addressed in order for the airplane to perform at the level that Boeing and United envisioned. Attached is the latest status of some of the top issues, which have the potential to cause the largest impact on our 777 operations. Some appear to have good interim solutions identified with aggressive timelines for final fixes, while others look like they could be improved upon. The AOG [aircraft on ground] team support is much appreciated and should be considered for every opportunity where it can be effectively employed.
The large volume of work and lack of maintenance allocation, due in part to the strike, delayed the delivery schedule and has significantly constricted our maintenance operation. We need your ongoing commitment for extraordinary support from Boeing in terms of more AOG teams to rapidly incorporate solutions, more consignment spares for problem units, faster turn times to incorporate unit modifications and faster timelines to reach design resolutions for major problems.
Source: Flight International
