Originally posted by Habu
Todays market is changing again. The hub and spoke system is no longer necessary with long range aircraft that carry smaller loads farther and economically. People want to get to their destinations quicker by not having to change planes. Filling 380's on all but the busiest routes will be hard. And how much of the traffic on those busy routes is transient travellers who would switch to direct flights if given the chance. Do you really think that all those hundreds of thousands of people streaming into Heathrow each week are going there to visit London?
I personally believe that the 380 best hope will be cargo. As a passenger aircraft it will have very limited success.
From an American perspective, I can see why this would make a lot of sense. On the US mainland there are hundreds of cities, and folks want the flexibility to get from point to point at the time of their own choosing, so it's important to offer multiple flights with a choice of times. For this reason, the backbone of the world's largest airline, American Airlines, is the MD80 and NOT something more grandiose like the 747-400. Indeed, AA does not have any 747s and as far as I know they never did.
But the geography of the wider world is nothing like the USA, as I'm sure you know, as you're familiar with Indonesia. Been to TG lately?
Some people use logic which states that the largest countries will have the largest aircraft, and it's flawed. Singapore is a tiny country of around 250 square miles, and yet SIA's
smallest aircraft is the four engined A340. The reason is simple if you look at a map of that area. Of the 59 destinations to which SIA flies, only about 6 are within 1000 miles of Singapore. They operate a service to Los Angeles - a distance of 14000km - with nothing but a lot of water in between. Look at the spareness of destinations in the Asia-Australia-Pacific areas, and the distances to be covered. This tells us why the watchwords for the airlines operating there will be size, and range.
That's all I have time for - my lunch date has arrived!
