Originally Posted by
Sykes
IMO, the game-changing part of the 787 that Smisek frequently references is that it will enable routes that are financially or logistically unfeasible with other equipment. I think we've barely even seen the beginning of the benefits from that. The passenger comfort items are just icing on the cake.
Yes, of course, but let's not forget that the "long-thin" city pairs on which 787 service is truly feasible (but not feasible without it) are really quite limited to perhaps two or three cities in the U.S. and perhaps half a dozen each in Asia and Europe.
One of the issues is that while the 787 is efficient it's still quite a large widebody so it wouldn't represent a revolution on truly thin long-thin routes.