More travelers are bypassing congested airports and flying direct, as airlines take advantage of new jets to reshape their networks.
Since the dawn of the jet era, airlines have been flying large, fuel-efficient aircraft on the busiest intercontinental routes. They connect major airports, before passengers transfer to smaller aircraft to connect across the region.
But advances in aerospace technology have put this “hub and spoke” model under pressure.
Airlines can now use smaller and more efficient single-aisle jets, usually associated with shorter journeys, on long-haul journeys, opening up direct routes that would be uneconomical with larger aircraft.
Passengers flying United Airlines across the Atlantic will be able to take direct flights from the US East Coast next summer to destinations including Bilbao, Spain, Palermo, Italy and even Greenland.
“Smaller, fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 737 Max 8 have enabled new direct service to growing niche leisure destinations within reach from the US East Coast,” said Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of global network and alliance planning at United Airlines.
“Our point-to-point portfolio is taking advantage of the growing interest in various European locations,” he said.
Other senior airline executives said that while the airport was not dead, travelers wanted to bypass major airports, in part because of the disruptions that have hit many congested hubs since the pandemic.
“We hear that some passengers avoid very large hubs. . . where there were delays,” said Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair.
The changes have led to a change in the way travelers use major airports over the past decade.
Among people who flew through the world’s 10 busiest international airports last year, 55 percent flew directly to their destination, rather than connecting between flights. That’s up from a nearly 50-50 split in 2015, according to an FT analysis of data from OAG, an aviation analytics firm.
The trend will be reinforced by the arrival of Airbus’s single-aisle, ultra-long-range A320 family member, which offers a leap in 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 11 hours of flight, thanks to the addition of an additional fuel tank in the cargo hold that can carry around 12,900 liters of kerosene. This compares to the older A320, which has a maximum range of 3,400 nautical miles.
European low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to use XLR to connect the UK to Saudi Arabia on economy class flights, while Aer Lingus and Iberia will fly the plane across the Atlantic.
Christian Scherer, head of Airbus’ commercial aircraft division, said the arrival of the XLR “is the first time in a long time that a new aircraft with new capabilities is coming to the market”.
“So even though it’s a derivative of the 321, the fact that it opens up a whole new one [range] capabilities in that aircraft size category, that’s a big deal,” he told the Financial Times.
The arrival of XLR “will create new opportunities,” Icelandair’s Bogason said. “We can fly further into North America on a very fuel-efficient narrow-body aircraft.”
The airline is considering flights to Texas, California and Dubai from its hub in Reykjavik when the planes arrive.
“When costs are lower, it’s less risky to start something new,” he said.
Airline and airport executives agree that airports will continue to play an important role in flight networks, as the most efficient way to connect large numbers of people and set high frequency of flights on popular routes.
“Our hubs will continue to play a vital role in our network,” United’s Quayle said.
London’s Heathrow Airport announced in December that it was expecting its own the busiest holiday periodwith a record number of passengers to pass through during the month.
But even airport bosses admit the ground is changing.
“You could say the business model has always been under threat,” said Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest hubs.
“Will we see areas that will be less dependent on hubs, not just because of XLR? Of course we will. But there are huge numbers of people who want to travel, many coming from areas without major airports. So I don’t think the center is going away,” he said at an industry conference in November.
