Originally Posted by fdcg27
Originally Posted by edyvw
Originally Posted by PimTac
One of the Dreamliners advantages are the "long and thin routes ". This opened up nonstop international flights to and from cities that couldn't support a flight before. Those customers previously flew to a hub and then on to their destination. Travelers will mostly prefer nonstop direct flights rather than transfers.
I think one issue is airport capacity. Many airports are at or near full capacity. I know Seattle-Tacoma just opened up some bus gates which travelers will love when the weather is rainy.
Boeing was betting on point to point routes. Airbus was going for hub to hub. Boeing obviously had better vision here.
Airports are at max. Denver will add 36 gates soon, and 16 will be snatched by Southwest. Also, companies are beefing up Colorado Springs routes as alternative since 5% of Denver daily traffic are people who drive from Colorado Springs. It will be interesting to see ATL, ORD etc. I know when ATL added 5th runway that FAA said it is end of an expansion.
There are a few other things to consider.
Most of the flights operated by the 787 either originate in or are terminated at a hub airport. Consider that a solid hub airport has a substantial base of population to draw from who also have the means to travel. This is the reason that you see successful hubs where you do and also the reason that hubs at places like CVG failed.
Consider that the A380 as built suffered from older tech engines as well as far more structural weight than needed for the aircraft as actually offered and built. Airbus made the A388 much heavier than it needed to be in anticipation of -900 and freighter developments that would never come.
An optimized A380-800 with more current generation engines and suitably lightened would be a compelling offering, but that will now never be.
Also, we see the worlds airlines replacing A380 and 747 aircraft with smaller twins. A smaller cabin brings fewer seats that need to be sold at garbage yields.
Gordon Bethune once said something like no airline ever went broke flying too small of an airplane.
The airlines appear to be grasping this old bit of wisdom.
Agree. I did not want to imply that there is single reason for success of planes like 787 or A350. I mean, companies in general are getting rid of four engines. Virgin is slowly retiring A340-600, one of my favorite intercontinental airplanes to fly on.
