The Race For Small: Why Long Haul Narrowbody Flights Are The Future

[Music] most of us associate long-haul flights with wide-body aircraft and since the introduction of the 747 this has largely been the case however in recent years we're beginning to see a shift narrow body aircraft are becoming increasingly capable of flying long distances and with the convenience of point-to-point routes proving popular for many airlines long-range narrow bodies are the way forward this is the race for small the introduction of more capable narrow body aircraft including the boeing 737 max airbus a220 and especially the airbus a321 xlr is certainly a key factor combine this with today's reduced demand and an increased appetite for point-to-point routes and we could see more airlines looking into this in the past decades long-haul flying has mostly been undertaken by larger wide-body aircraft the introduction of the 747 in 1969 really changed the possibilities and standards of flying direct flights were possible to many more locations to a large extent aircraft development over the next decades held the same concept the 747 was followed in the long range market by the 767 and the triple seven both wide bodies airbus launched the dual a330 and a340 wide body program and in more recent years the a350 and a380 as well as the boeing 787 have also come onto the scene longer flights with narrow body aircraft however are nothing new if we go back to the early days of the jet age the boeing 707 was the first truly successful jet aircraft and was in fact a narrow body the most sold passenger 707 variant the 707 320b could fly 140 to 189 passengers as far as 9 300 kilometers with the development of the 747 and later wide bodies these early days of long narrow body flight were largely forgotten but it has never completely gone away while you wouldn't find an early boeing 737 on long-haul routes many narrow body aircraft have been capable of decent ranges the 737 ng 757 and a320 co are all capable of flight times of up to eight hours the 757 200 for example has a range of up to 7 250 kilometers while the 737 800 the most sold 737 variant to date comes in at 5436 kilometers and this has developed even further with the a320 neo and the 737 max series one of the first modern narrow bodies to start being used extensively for long-haul flights was the boeing 757 the first flew in 1983 and has been very popular with u.s airlines for medium and long-haul domestic and regional flights once etops rules extended twin engine operations later in the decade it started to see use on longer routes including transatlantic etops was really a game changer for twin engine aircraft the acronym if you didn't know it stands for extended range twin engine operational performance standards obviously etops is a lot easier to say um but it was first granted for twa for their boeing 767 back in the 80s um and this was it was kind of a special um allocation which gave them the ability to fly up to 120 minutes from the nearest airport suitable for emergency landings now what this meant for twa was that they could fly to paris from from the states without having to make lots of stops along the way so you know it really opened up the possibility to fly transatlantic with their twin jet um and you know before this it was only 60 minutes at one point it was 90 minutes but with the latest generation of narrow body it's now become possible to fly these small planes over large bodies of water too for example the a321 neo the long range version has etops 180 um the 737 max also has etops 180 and it's possible the xlr will have an even greater e-tops than this so you know this means airlines can launch long and skinny routes connecting continents with these smaller aircraft over large bodies of water we looked in detail at some of the longest 737 flights operating in 2018. lufthansa's 737 700 flight from frankfurt to pune india was the longest with a flight time of 8 hours and 20 minutes aero lineas argentina's was operating a max 8 for eight hours between puenoceres and punta cana of course this is no longer the case the rise in narrow body routes seen in 2018 has only increased further these days with several drivers including the availability of new aircraft with increased range such as the a321lr and in the coming years the a321 xlr the 737 max returning to service a number of huge improvements in narrow body efficiency a shift to more point-to-point flight operations and a lower demand on many routes as aviation recovers over the coming years if you're liking this video so far why not click subscribe and hit the like button oh and be sure to click that notification bell too while the rise of narrow body routes in the past was due largely to the 757 today there are three new aircraft pushing the possibilities of narrow bodies for now these are the boeing 737 max the airbus a220 and the a321 which has been further developed into the a321 xlr let's look at each jet in further detail the 737 max of course has had its problems in the last two years however this should change with its recertification and the recovery of air travel in the coming years the 737 of course has improved throughout its long history with several series of aircraft the 737 max has continued these improvements in fact there's a 14 improvement in efficiency between the next generation and the 737 max series the max's range has also increased across all variants making it much more suitable for longer routes the max variants offer the following ranges 737 max 7 7 130 kilometers 737 max 8 6570 kilometers 737 max 9 6 570 kilometers and the 737 max 10 610 kilometers for comparison the most popular 737 ng variant 7378 has a range of 5436 kilometers before its grounding we saw the 737 max on some long routes norwegian air operated some of the longest 737 max routes including flights to new york from belfast dublin edinburgh and shannon these are all over 5 000 kilometers meanwhile aero linears argentina's operated the 737 max between puenoceres and punta cana a route of almost 6 000 kilometers with a range of just over 6200 kilometers the a220 300 comes just short of the 737 max but with its lower capacity and incredible efficiency the jet opens up more markets and routes to long-haul narrow bodies we've not yet seen this on routes as long as those operated by the 737 max or on transatlantic services just yet u.s airlines have used it mainly on regional routes although delta has operated it between atlanta and seattle european carrier air baltic has operated it on several longer routes including riga to abu dhabi a distance of 4370 kilometers in articles found on our website simple flying has looked at the possibility of longer transatlantic routes with the a220 the jet has received etops 180 approval an extended range version could easily fly between london and new york or further the biggest game changer in long-haul narrow body flight is likely to be the airbus a321 xlr this new aircraft is currently expected to enter service by 2023 with production expected to begin in june 2021. this aircraft indeed promises a lot it extends range up to 8700 kilometers and offers a 30 lower fuel burn per seat compared with previous generation a320 neos the plane can seat between 175 to 244 passengers depending on the configuration we'll have to wait some time to see where airlines will fly their a321 xlrs but with over 450 of these aircraft ordered by more than 20 airlines we're bound to see some interesting services the largest orders of the a321 xlr have been from u.s airlines namely american airlines and united airlines each ordering 50. we also have sizable orders from airlines like qantas airasia vietjet wiz air and air arabia there are huge route possibilities for the a321 xlr it can of course easily operate transatlantic flights but it can go much further it can connect south asia with europe the middle east with south africa or the southern us with south american destinations like argentina and chile some long-distance route examples might be abu dhabi to reykjavik brisbane to hanoi houston to santiago kuala lumpur to auckland low-cost airlines in particular have many opportunities to expand routes jetblue will soon launch service to european markets vietnamese low-cost airline vietjet is planning to operate australia services and chile's sky airline is eyeing connections into north america of course it's not just improving aircraft and engine technology that'll lead to more narrow body long-haul routes airline economics and operation have shifted in recent years too and the slowdown experienced in 2020 and beyond will increase this airlines are increasingly moving to point-to-point operations the case of the a380 is a good example of this this was envisioned by airbus as a high-capacity aircraft to meet and beat the boeing 747 it would be ideal for hub and spoke operations where passengers are brought together from several destinations to fly high capacity routes from hub airports it would also help at busy capacity constrained airports by maximizing slot usage this has not really worked out for the a380 airlines have shifted more to point to point and with this smaller aircraft have taken over emirates may have made it work well but others have struggled with wide bodies the smaller triple 7 has overtaken the 747 as the most sold to date and this will go further with the triple 7x airbus has ended the a380 program and is focused on the twin engine a350 the situation is going further with a need for lower capacity on many routes coming out of the pandemic airlines are likely to see lower demand on many routes we're seeing this downscaling with long-haul airlines like emirates as it moves from the a380 to smaller aircraft like the 787 and a350 if the demand is lower it'll make even more sense to operate lower cost narrow bodies on routes that can take them airlines are also more likely to start testing new routes as demand and passenger profiles change leisure travel will likely come back much faster than business travel in many markets for example this too will benefit from a lower capacity cheaper to operate narrow body at least until the route is proven ready for a wide body point to point is also likely to become even more appealing as passengers look to avoid hub airport connections the convenience of smaller planes on point-to-point routes is huge so point-to-point has really been a step change away from the hub and spoke of the 1990s and for passengers there's plenty of benefits as you know i'm sure you can understand it's it's shorter journeys there's a lot less hassle there's no stress of connecting in foreign airports or whether you're going to make that connection far fewer risks of your bags going missing but as well as the passengers there are benefits for airlines too it allows them to target routes that have little or no competition it means they can increase the markets that they're flying and it means most importantly they're not limited to these congested hub airports so they've got room to grow and expand of course one of the challenges of operating narrow bodies on longer flights is the smaller cabin space passengers are used to the higher ceilings extra space and additional lavatories afforded by a wide body aircraft this may be hard to replicate on narrow bodies some passengers of course will accept this especially if the growing use of efficient narrow bodies also lowers ticket price and increases the choice of routes the flying experience may not even be all that bad even with long-haul flying not all passengers are enjoying spacious suites and on-board bars so for most of us the image of the narrow body is being packed in no room to move you know your typical ryanair flight where you've got no leg room and people squashed either size of you but this is changing rapidly with the rise in longer flights on small planes and particularly up front it's not unusual to see a lie flat bed on a narrow body i mean jetblue pioneered this with the mint product in the us and and other u.s airlines use premium products particularly on the longer transcom flights as well even down the back airlines have a mind to our comfort uh modern narrow bodies typically have wider seats than the economy class of a historic body plane and you'll have more legroom too so they know that it doesn't sound great going a long way on a narrow body but they're trying to make it as pleasant as possible in the past we've seen aircraft fitted out with an all business class set up the company did this with the 757 and a321 neo while british airways used the a318 between london city and new york we could well see something similar most likely with the smaller a220 but there's nothing lined up yet however as narrow body routes expand it would not be surprising to see this develop what do you think are the possibilities for long-haul narrow body routes in the future where else do you think we'll see the 737 max a220 a321lr and a321xlr expand to let us know your thoughts in the comments did you know that we publish over 175 stories every single week on simpleflying.com be sure to check the link in the description for more great stories just like this thanks for watching and be sure to like and subscribe before you go

Channel: Long Haul by Simple Flying

Views: 365,260

Keywords: aviation, flying, flight, boeing, airbus, planes, aircraft, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 777x, a320, a321, airbus a380, a380, airports, american airlines, united airlines, delta airlines, british airways

Id: SUuJRLINK1Q

Length: 15min 40sec (940 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 29 2020