As airlines use new jets to rebuild their networks, more passengers are opting to bypass busy hubs and take direct flights.
Since the dawn of the jet age, airlines have flown large, fuel-guzzling planes on some of the busiest intercontinental routes. These connect large airports and passengers transfer to smaller planes to fly across the region.
However, advances in aircraft technology are putting this “hub-and-spoke” model under pressure.
Airlines can now use smaller, more efficient single-aisle jets (usually used for short-distance travel) on longer journeys, opening up more direct routes that would be uneconomical with larger aircraft. It became like that.
Next summer, passengers flying across the Atlantic on United Airlines will be able to fly nonstop from the U.S. East Coast to destinations such as Bilbao, Spain, Palermo, Italy, and even Greenland.
“Small, fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 737 Max 8 are enabling new nonstop service to fast-growing niche leisure destinations within reach of the U.S. East Coast,” United said. said Patrick Quayle, Aviation’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances.
“Our point-to-point portfolio capitalizes on the growing interest in Europe’s diverse regions,” he said.
Other airline executives said that while hubs are not going away, passengers are keen to bypass larger airports, in part due to disruptions at many busy hubs since the pandemic. .
“We’re hearing that some passengers are avoiding very large hubs…delays are occurring,” Icelandair CEO Bogi Nils Bogason said. .
This change has changed the way passengers use large airports over the past decade.
Last year, 55% of people who flew into 10 of the world’s busiest international airports took a direct flight to their destination rather than connecting. That’s up from an almost 50-50 split in 2015, according to a Financial Times analysis of data from aviation analytics firm OAG.
This trend will be further accelerated by the introduction of the Airbus single-aisle A320 family of ultra-long-range aircraft, which offer significantly improved performance. The aircraft made its first commercial flight in November.
The A321XLR can carry up to 244 passengers and has a maximum range of 4,700 nautical miles (8,700 km) or flight time, thanks to the addition of an additional fuel tank in the hold that can carry approximately 12,900 liters of kerosene. will be 11 hours. This compares to the older A320, which had a maximum range of 3,400 nautical miles.
European low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to use the XLR to connect the UK and Saudi Arabia on all-economy flights, while Aer Lingus and Iberia plan to fly the aircraft across the Atlantic.
Christian Scherer, head of Airbus’ commercial aircraft division, said the XLR’s arrival marks “the first time in a long time that a new aircraft with new capabilities has been brought to market.”
“So even if it’s a derivative of the 321, the fact that it opens up a whole new (range of) possibilities in that airplane size category, that’s a big thing,” he told the Financial Times. Ta.
The arrival of XLR “will create new opportunities,” said Icelandair’s Bogason. “It’s a very fuel-efficient narrow-body aircraft that can fly even further into North America.”
The airline is considering flights to Texas, California and Dubai from its Reykjavik hub once the planes arrive.
“If costs are low, the risk of starting something new is also low,” he says.
Airline and airport executives agree that hubs will continue to play an important role in aviation networks, as the most efficient way to connect large numbers of people and operate popular routes at high frequencies.
“Our hubs will continue to play an important role in our network,” said United’s Quayle.
London’s Heathrow Airport announced in December that it expected a record number of passengers to pass through the airport, with the Christmas period being its busiest.
But even hub airport leaders acknowledge that the situation is changing.
“I would say the business model has always been under threat,” said Thomas Waldby, chief executive of Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest hubs.
“Are there going to be areas where we are less reliant on hubs, especially because of XLR? Of course we will. But there are huge numbers of people who want to travel, many of whom come from areas without major airports. So I don’t think hubs are going away,” he said at an industry conference in November.
