Big Plane vs Little Plane (The Economics of Long-Haul Flights)

Caption notes

In this 2016 video, Wendover Productions uses the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 to compare two approaches to long-haul routes. In a hub-and-spoke network, travelers from different cities connect at a hub, concentrating traffic on trunk routes that can support larger aircraft. The point-to-point approach uses aircraft with enough range and fewer seats, making some long nonstop routes with thinner demand more feasible. The comparison shows how an aircraft’s fit depends on how much traffic a route can draw and what it costs the airline to operate.