New jets help passengers avoid congestion at hub airports

A growing number of passengers are bypassing congested hub airports and flying direct as airlines use new aircraft to transform their networks.

Since the dawn of the jet age, airlines have flown large and fuel-hungry planes on the busiest intercontinental routes.These connect major airports before passengers transfer to smaller planes for regional connections.

But advances in aircraft technology have put this hub-and-spoke model under pressure.

Airlines can now use smaller and more efficient single-aisle aircraft, typically associated with shorter trips, on longer journeys, opening up direct routes that would be uneconomical with larger aircraft.

Next summer, transatlantic passengers on United Airlines will be able to fly directly from the US East Coast to destinations including Bilbao in Spain, Palermo in Italy and even Greenland.

“Smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 737 Max 8 have enabled new nonstop service to new entertainment destinations accessible from the US East Coast,” said Patrick Quayle, United Airlines’ senior vice president of global network planning and alliances. :

“Our point-to-point portfolio supports the growing interest in various European locations,” he said.

Other senior airline executives said that while the hub airport was not dead, passengers wanted to avoid major airports, in part because of the disruptions that have hit many busy hubs as a result of the pandemic.

“We hear that some passengers avoid very large junctions. . where there were delays,” said Icelandair CEO Bogi Nils Bogason.

The changes have led to a change in the use of large airports by passengers over the past decade.

Last year, 55 percent of people flying through the world’s 10 busiest international airports flew direct to their destination rather than connecting flights, according to an analysis of data by OAG, an aviation analytics firm, in 2015.

The trend will be strengthened by the arrival of an additional long-range member of the Airbus single-aisle A320 family, which offers performance flying. 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 time thanks to the addition of an additional fuel tank that can carry around 12,900 liters of kerosene, compared to the older A320 with a maximum range of 3400 nautical miles.

European low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to use XLR to connect the UK to Saudi Arabia on all economy flights, while Aer Lingus and Iberia will fly the plane across the Atlantic.

Christian Scherer, head of Airbus’ commercial aircraft division, said the XLR’s arrival “is the first time in a long time that a new aircraft with new capabilities has come to the market”.

“So even though it’s a derivative of the 321, the fact that it opens up a whole new [range] About the capabilities of that aircraft size category, that’s a big deal,” he told the Financial Times.

The arrival of the XLR will “create new opportunities,” Icelandair’s Bogason said. “We can fly further into North America with a very fuel-efficient narrowbody.”

The airline is considering flights to Texas, California and Dubai from its Reykjavik hub once the planes arrive.

“When costs are lower, it’s less risky to start something new,” he said.

Airline and airport executives agree that hub airports will still play an important role in flight networks as the most efficient way to connect large numbers of people and fly high frequencies on popular routes.

“Our hubs will continue to play a vital role in our network,” said United’s Quayle.

London’s Heathrow Airport announced in December that it was expecting it the busiest holiday seasonwith a record number of passengers in one month.

But even hub airport executives admit the ground is changing.

“You could say the business model has always been at risk,” said Thomas Woldby, chief executive of Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest hubs.

“Will we see areas that are less dependent on hubs, especially because of XLR? But there are huge numbers of people who want to travel, many coming from areas where there are no major airports. So I don’t think so.” , that hub is disappearing,” he said at an industry conference in November.