Aircraft Range Increases Will Not Spur Hub Declines, Executives Predict

PERTH, Australia—Aviation industry executives believe that despite the increased point-to-point capabilities of new-generation aircraft, they will not diminish the role of hub airports.

Modern narrowbody and midsize widebodies have enabled more nonstop routes between secondary markets to become financially viable, noted panelists at Routes Asia 2025 here in Perth on March 26. This has led to a rise in the number of routes launched that bypass large hubs.

However, this trend is not resulting in a decline in traffic going through the hubs, said Miyuru Sandaruwan, Boeing regional market director. He estimates there will be enough demand growth to boost large hubs as well increasing secondary routes, particularly in regions such as Southeast Asia and South Asia, where demand is expected to rise by an average of 7% per year over the next 20 years.

Even excluding extended-range versions of narrowbodies, the greater capabilities of the base models of new-generation narrowbodies are creating more network opportunities, said Abhijit DasGupta, IndiGo’s head of planning and revenue management.

The evolution of technology is bringing new levels of aircraft efficiency, and when airlines are “able to reinvest that efficiency into range, it opens up a lot of new and interesting markets,” DasGupta said.

Long-haul point-to-point operations and hub-and-spoke approaches are not contradictions, DasGupta said. These business models have “always coexisted,” and both will add new routes through the introduction of the latest aircraft types, he said.

Many routes will inevitably still be too thin to connect directly, “so there will always be a role for aggregation” of traffic at hubs, DasGupta noted. New-generation narrowbodies manufactured by Airbus and Boeing have created more opportunities for airlines to launch nonstop routes from Europe to Saudi Arabia, said Majid Khan, CEO of the Saudi Air Connectivity Program.

Some routes to Saudi Arabia either announced or launched in recent months would never have happened without the new narrowbody types, Khan said.