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Larger planes aren't significantly more fuel efficient. Look at the A380 vs. the 787. The reason airlines thought hub and spoke was more profitable was because
by gusgordon 9y ago
Larger planes aren't significantly more fuel efficient. Look at the A380 vs. the 787.
The reason airlines thought hub and spoke was more profitable was because they could basically guarantee that every flight would be full. If a flight is only half full, you're lugging an entire airplane around for no reason which is very costly.
Hub and spoke is worse than airlines thought, though — newer planes like the 787 are far more efficient, so that cost of lugging the airplane around is reduced.
- tarlinian 9y agoThe 787 and A380 are both immense planes compared to 90% of the domestic fleet. You can count the number of domestic routes that can support widebody aircraft (787/777/A33/A350/A380) on one hand. And they are significantly more fuel efficient per passenger mile than a 737/A320 which are in turn quite a bit more fuel efficient per passenger mile than a regional jet (United Express/American Eagle, etc.)