System Analysis for Future Long-Range Operation Concepts

A systems analysis is conducted to show the potential of intermediate stop operations (ISO) in terms of fuel efficiency increase and cost-effectiveness. It can be shown that both with existing and re-designed aircraft, the fuel saving potential is in the order of 7 to 15.5 % on a single mission, depending mainly on aircraft design range and the geographic location of the refueling point with regards to origin and destination. Based on the findings for single mission, a global analysis of all Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 flights served in 2007 is performed, defining fuel-optimum intermediate airports wherever possible. An A330-200 type of aircraft with a design range reduced to 3000 nm would yield highest global fuel benefits of 10.4 % considering both ISO flights and flights served in conventional ways, whereas a 4400 nm design would be able to serve the most number of flights in ISO mode. An airport load analysis shows, that due to the concentrated location of route-streams, the top ten selected airports for intermediate stops would serve 30-44 % of all ISO flights for the fleets under consideration. The most frequented airports would then experience additional traffic of roughly 130 flights per day. It is further shown that a cost-benefit analysis is necessary to reveal the true economic benefit of this concept for an airline, going beyond plain fuel cost to a trade-off between opposing cos