In March, I posted about a new resource that provides in-depth detail about the approximate 700 aircraft in the United Airlines fleet. Everything from exterior items, such as tail numbers and livery information, to interior items, including cabin configuration, economy plus status and in-seat power, is presented in a spreadsheet format.
The new version was just launched and it’s worth bookmarking as it’s constantly updated with changes as more aircraft are either repainted or being overhauled in some way, such as United’s 767-300 “ghetto birds†being converted to an ETOPS lie-flat international configuration.
It, too, is spreadsheet driven and allows you to filter by what you want to see based on what interests you about the fleet. Below, for example, is a screen grab showing information about United’s 767-300 aircraft:
Other areas of the site include a “Meet the Fleet†section with specs about each aircraft and how many of each type have been repainted, a page devoted to deciphering the types as they appear on the United Cargo website and a discussion forum.
The website’s author is highly passionate and dedicated in maintaining it and is open to your questions, comments and feedback. It’s perfect for me as I maintain a spreadsheet myself that lists each flight I take as I like to track not only my mileage accrual, but also the specific aircraft I’ve flown.
Check out the updated fleet tracking site here.
This site led me to the source spreadsheet for the “What Widebody Aircraft Am I Flying On?” on UnitedCargo.com. The source spreadsheet has two tabs, WB and NB, and it is easy to put some filtering on these to find all domestic flights that use international equipment. Very handy for planning trips with the best possible seats.
I prefer the prior version’s navigation where each aircraft type has it’s own tab, I like everything else though.
Thanks for the link. Did not see the old one, but starting to explore this a bit. Interesting and impressive, to say the least! While not an ‘offical’ United website, the author obviously has access to inside data – and permission to use it. I particlulary enjoyed the link to FlightAware that t he ability to track individual fleet in nearly real time. Thanks again for posting this link. I don’t understand the site author’s motivation for maintaining it, but it is an impressive bit of work.
I am in the process of booking a hawaii trip from DTW to HNL…I am trying to decide what route to take with a stop in what city??? We want lie flat seats in business and it is so hard to tell what planes they are flying what day that have the lie flat business or even a lie flat first with only a 2 class plane. Let me know if you have any experience on the Hawaii routes…I mean some of the flights are 8-10 hours and I cant believe that they wouldn’t have lie flat in business like they do on international flights that are the same length.
@Faye: The lie-flat routes used to be IAH/EWR to HNL, but there doesn’t seem to be any consistency these days from what I can tell. I don’t monitor this market too frequently, though. A quick search didn’t turn up much success either.