Dipti Kapadia Asks Whether the Jumbo Jet Era Is Coming to an End.direct flight over vast distances problem.

In the 1960s, Boeing introduced the world's first jumbo jet.  This met two key needs of global travel.  The Boeing 747 could carry 450 people and it could fly vast distances such as crossing the Pacific.  For decades, the only way to connect two cities seven or more thousand miles apart wast a jumbo jet. Over time both 747s and various wide aisle twin engine planes extended their range, but jumbo jets were the only solution to the direct flight over vast distances.

Both Airbus and Boeing project global passenger growth at or near 5% a year for the next two decades. This would require both more available seat miles and airports that could accommodate the growing passenger throughput. Airbus and Boeing made different strategic decisions about how their customers, the world's airlines, would respond to meeting this growth.  Airbus decided the global air carriers would continue their hub-and-spoke systems and overcome the resulting choke points at those hubs by flying a yet bigger jumbo jet.  Thus they committed to building the A380, the world's largest jet, which, in one configuration, can seat 950 people.  Boeing figured airlines would increase their international point-to-point flights garnering more business travel with its higher revenue per passenger mile. thus they bet the company on building the boeing 737 Dreamliner, a largely composite (thus more fuel efficient and less costly) plane with a long range and 350-450 seats.

Who is winning?

in this November 9th, 2015, Wall street Journal video, the Journal's Dipti Kapadia wonders if "The Jumbo Jet Era Is Coming to an End?"







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