With all else being roughly equal: direct flight, similar distance, same airline.
Yeah the supply is greater at major airports (in the form of more gates), but so is the demand. I’m struggling to see why that doesn’t balance out.
In: 3
“Mid size aircraft” are the most sold commercial aircraft and they’re designed to be extremely efficient. Boeing has roughly half a trillion in back orders (all orders, not just commercial). Smaller planes are well engineered but the demand just isn’t the same for the level of design and engineering in airplanes like the 737 or 787.
The 747 was the most efficient by head count at one point but it was too large to really work out. Most flyers want to go direct (no layovers). The 747 was designed assuming people wanted to travel hub to hub for super cheap (so imagine longer flights with layovers, small planes on one or both ends, but super massive airplane flight in the middle). That’s why most have focused on “mid-size”.
Developed countries (like China) – do really well too with midsize because their economy boomed faster than their roads and trains could. So they do a ton of inter-county flying to get around. Australia too. There is regular flights between Melbourne and Sidney (like very 30-ish min or so) as it’s a giant country but no real infrastructure in between.
TLDR: everyone wants a midsize airplane so they’re ridiculously good.
Latest Answers