In 2007, Singapore Airlines debuted the largest passenger airplane ever...
the Airbus A380 …and it’s massive to say the least...
This giant double decker plane can fit up to 853 passengers.....
It’s 239 feet long, 79 feet tall and 262 feet wingtip to wingtip…
orrrrrr, put simply, the length of two blue whales!
Those who fly the A-380 on airlines like Emirates and Singapore,
are treated with beyond luxurious accommodations.
But today, many airlines have stopped purchasing the jet
..and after the A380 completes its last few orders for Emirates,
this Airbus will no longer be produced.
So what happened to this fortress?
Well these days airlines are actually thinking smaller…
The narrow body plane ..something from our past..is now dominating the sky
In 1970 Pan Am debuted this: the 747.
The 747 was more than twice the size of Pan Am's previous standard, the 707.
While the 707 revolution -ized commercial
flight with trans-atlantic trips, it needed to stop and refuel.
And Pan Am’s founder Juan Trippe wanted to go bigger. Much bigger.
So, He reached out to his friend Bill Allen at Boeing, to commission the 747.
"If you build it," said Trippe, "I'll buy it." "If you buy it," said Allen, "I'll build it."
So the Boeing 747, the queen of the skies, was born..
It was a game changer and known at the time as the largest civilian airplane in the world..
Just look at it compared to the 707!
The plane was so big that Boeing had to create a new assembly plant to produce it.
Beyond size, the 747 was revolutionary in other ways.
It democratized air travel, making it affordable and accessible for a larger population.
These massive, four engine jets became the aircraft of choice for long-haul flights.
But just as soon as they arrived, things began to change.
Throughout the 1970s
technological advancements gave twin engine planes the ability to travel longer flights.
“As the engines demonstrated to be more reliable, and have very low failure rates,
then it became acceptable to let them go with longer ETOPS diversion limitations.”
Okay quick pause, ETOPS is a certification that permits twin engine aircraft to fly longer routes.
Before,an aircrafts had to be within 60 minutes ]of an airport to accommodate emergency landings.
“And at this point, we can basically fly almost anywhere on two engines without having to
worry too much about the divergent airports….Now you can take an international airplane or
a trans, or an oceanic airplane, and fly with two engines instead of three or four..”
Despite growing competition from smaller planes,
airlines continued to purchase and use jumbo jets for decades.
Until recently...
So what changed? Well, we can point to a few things
But first, let’s start with money cost
These aircrafts don’t come cheap..
Prices vary, but typically the Airbus A380 comes in at around 446 million dollars…
While the narrow-body Airbus A321 costs closer to 120 million..
Not all airlines can even afford them..
And those who can are dropping them, like Lufthansa and Air France
because of their sheer operating expenses. And they even take a toll on airports.
“Airports spent millions of dollars reinvesting in their terminals, facilities, batting jet bridges,
larger baggage delivery systems, and tons of other passenger focused improvements to make
the A380 at work and to tell carriers ‘Hey, you can fly your a 380 here to our airport.’”
Plus, narrow body aircrafts are more fuel efficient.
“They have lower fuel burn. And by having this
lower fuel burn, it means lower emissions” “They're more sustainable and friendly to
their environment. And this is something our industry is carefully looking into ”
Now, it’s important to recognize that super wide bodies like the
A380 can actually be more fuel efficient..BUT…
“That's only true if you can fill the airplane...If
you're flying empty seats, it's it's inefficient”
But arguably flexibility is the biggest incentive.
“It used to be this hub model where we fly from our hub in the US
to either our partner's hub or one of our hubs over in Europe. And then from there,
you can go and connect to your final destination.”
But smaller aircraft don’t rely on the jumbo- sized infrastructure located at major hubs.
This allows them to fly directly to and from smaller cities.
It’s what the industry calls point to point flying.
It's desirable from a market standpoint and for people like me who live in Boston, we benefit from
more point to point service.”
PLUS. narrow-body aircrafts are capable of flying multiple flights a day.
so you can use them for 1000 mile flight in the morning, and then the afternoon,
you can do a transatlantic, and then come back and fly a domestic route the next day,”
Not only do prospective travelers get access to direct flights to smaller cities,
but they also have a variety of departure times to choose from.
Or healthy competition SOT
And with more choice, we have healthy competition. And with healthy competition,
we have improved and better airlines improved and better services at airports and on board
While narrow-bodies make up around 65 to 70% of airplane sales, some argue their popularity
is simply due to market demands - like in a post pandemic reality...aka fewer trips.
..I don't know if they'll continue to fly it in the long haul flights. if demand comes back,
you would switch to a bigger plane.”
“It'll be interesting to see as we recover from the pandemic,
if passenger traffic does pick up as fast, will airlines pivot
into a little bit more wide body flying, just to pick up that extra cargo capacity.”
After all, the A380 is back in flight…
But..what if.. neither size is the future. Maybe there's
something in the middle that fits just right.
“the 787 really enabled very long haul
service...that's a wide body airplane. It has two aisles, but it will do what we call a fin market,
so you don't need as much traffic in order to be able to fill the airplane”
As of now, Narrow-bodies are seizing their moment..
And airlines are setting their sights on Aircrafts like the
for other long haul routes..like to US to South America, Europe to Africa or the East….
Guess we’ll just have to keep our eyes to the skies!