Can the renewed interest in ultra-long-range passenger flights be satisfied by the current generation of civil aircraft?

Abstract

abstract. A number of full service network carriers have recently stated their ambition to develop certain ultra-longrange (ULR) routes, such as Doha to Auckland, Dubai to Auckland, Dubai to Panama City, Singapore to San Francisco, Singapore to New York, all of which require a great circle distance between 7,000-9,000 nautical miles (nm) with an estimated travel time between 15 and 20 hours. This paper examines the capability of the current generation of wide-bodied passenger aircraft to satisfy this evolving strategy, and the impact, if any, on the provision of air cargo transportation. An exploratory study is presented herein based on an assessment of each aircraft type's payload-range envelope, taken from the appropriate Aircraft Airports Handling Characteristics Manual. The key findings reveal that airlines wishing to pursue this ultra-longrange strategy have a surprisingly limited choice of current-generation passenger aircraft which are capable of flying the desired mission profile without compromising significantly on passenger numbers and cargo payload.

Cooperating to Compete in the Global Air Cargo Industry: The Case of the DHL Express and Lufthansa Cargo A.G. Joint Venture Airline ‘AeroLogic’

“…In the world air cargo industry, air cargo capacity is provided by combination passenger airlines, that is, airlines that carry passengers on the main deck and air cargo in their passenger aircraft lower lobe belly-holds and by dedicated all-cargo carriers, as well as the integrators, for example, FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) [177]. All-cargo services are operated by dedicated freighter aircraft with all the available capacity dedicated to air cargo transportation [4,178].…”

The Air Cargo Carrying Potential of The Airbus A350-900XWB and Boeing 787-9 Aircraft on Their Ultra-Long-Haul Flights: A Case Study for Flights from San Francisco to Singapore

“…Air cargo not only has a socioeconomic significance for globalization, but also plays a significant role in airlines' revenue streams (Budd and Ison, 2017), generating an estimated 9.5 percent of total global airline revenues in 2016 (International Air Transport Association, 2017). In the world air cargo industry, air cargo capacity is provided by fullservice network (FSNC) or combination passenger airlines, that is, airlines that carry passengers on the main deck and air cargo in their passenger aircraft lower lobe belly-holds and by dedicated all-cargo carriers, such as Cargolux Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), as well as the integrators, for example, FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) (Baxter and Bardell, 2017). Baxter and Bardell (2017) have noted that the aircraft fleet composition and route networks are regarded as two of the most critical elements of an airline's business model.…”

“…In the world air cargo industry, air cargo capacity is provided by fullservice network (FSNC) or combination passenger airlines, that is, airlines that carry passengers on the main deck and air cargo in their passenger aircraft lower lobe belly-holds and by dedicated all-cargo carriers, such as Cargolux Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA), as well as the integrators, for example, FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) (Baxter and Bardell, 2017). Baxter and Bardell (2017) have noted that the aircraft fleet composition and route networks are regarded as two of the most critical elements of an airline's business model. The world's major full-service network carriers (FSNCs) usually structure their route networks according to the hub-and-spoke principle (Goedeking 2010;Holloway, 2016;Schmidt and Gollnick, 2016).…”

“…Under such a strategy, airlines link together smaller peripheral cities via their hub airports to optimise both passenger and air cargo connectivity. Many FSNCs also structure their route networks on short haul, medium-haul, and long-haul services (Baxter and Bardell, 2017). The Boeing B787-9 (ICAO aircraft code, B789) and the Airbus A350-900 (ICAO aircraft code, A359) passenger aircraft entered commercial service in 2011 and 2015, respectively (Aircraft Commerce, 2016).…”

“…These next generation aircraft have provided airlines with the ability to operate ultra-long-haul flights (ULR). An ultra-long-haul flight is defined as ultra-long-range (ULR) as any non-stop flight carrying an economically meaningful payload of passengers and air cargo over a distance in excess of 7,000 nautical miles (Baxter and Bardell, 2017).…”