New jets help passengers avoid congestion at hub airports

A growing number of passengers are bypassing congested hub airports and flying direct, as airlines take advantage of new jets to redraw their networks.

Airlines have flown large and fuel-hungry aircraft on the busiest intercontinental routes since the dawn of the jet age. These connect major airports before passengers transfer to smaller planes to connect across a region.

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

Airlines can now use smaller and more efficient single-aisle jets, usually associated with shorter trips, on longer journeys, opening up direct routes that would have been unnecessary with larger aircraft.

Next summer, United Airlines passengers across the Atlantic will be able to take direct flights from the US East Coast to destinations including Bilbao, Spain, Palermo, Italy and even Greenland.

“Smaller, fuel-efficient aircraft like the Boeing 737 Max 8 have introduced new nonstop service to a growing number of specialty leisure destinations within reach of the US East Coast,” said Patrick Coyle, United Airlines’ senior vice-president of global network planning and alliances.

“Our point-to-point portfolio taps into the growing interest in various European locales,” he said.

Other senior airline executives said that, while the hub airport was not dead, passengers were eager to bypass major airports, in part because of the disruption that has engulfed many densely populated hubs since the pandemic.

“We have heard that some passengers are avoiding very big hubs. . . where there are delays,” said Icelandair Chief Executive Bogi Nils Bogason.

The changes have changed how passengers use major airports over the past decade.

55 percent of people flying through 10 of the world’s busiest international airports last year flew directly to their destination without connecting between flights. That’s up from a nearly 50-50 split in 2015, according to an FT analysis of data from OAG, an aviation analytics company.

The trend will be supercharged by the arrival of an extra-long-range member of the Airbus single-aisle A320 family, offering a leap in performance. The aircraft took its first commercial flight in November.

The A321XLR can carry 244 passengers and has a maximum range of 4,700 nautical miles (8,700 km) or 11 hours flying time, thanks to the addition of an additional fuel tank in the hold that can carry approximately 12,900 liters of kerosene. This compares to the older A320, which has a maximum range of 3,400 nautical miles.

European low-cost airline Wizz Air plans to use the XLR to connect the UK with Saudi Arabia on all-economy flights, while Aer Lingus and Iberia will fly the aircraft 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 is coming to market”.

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

The arrival of XLR “will create new opportunities,” Icelandair’s Bogason said. “We can fly more in North America on very fuel-efficient narrow-body aircraft”.

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

“When costs are low, 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 volumes of people and operate high-frequency flights on popular routes.

“Our hubs will continue to play an important role in our network,” said United’s Coyle.

London’s Heathrow Airport said in December it was expecting it Busiest festival timeA record number of passengers are expected to pass through in the month.

But hub airport bosses also admit the ground is shifting.

“You can say the business model was always under threat,” said Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest hubs.

“Will we see areas that are less dependent on hubs, not least because of XLR? Of course we will. But there are plenty of people who want to travel, many from areas without major airports. So I don’t think the hub is going to disappear,” he said at an industry conference in November.