American seeks savings from Dreamliner

Because money drives much of the decision-making at airlines, the arrival of the Dreamliner has allowed American to take a look at routes that it has previously avoided or that can be flown more economically. Consequently, American will deploy the 787 on longer flights, most of them international.

American will launch its Boeing 787s on the Dallas-Fort Worth-Chicago route on Thursday. On June 2, the carrier will begin flying 787s on its Dallas-Fort Worth-Beijing route.

Two days later, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Buenos Aires, Argentina, route — which today uses a larger Boeing 777-200 — will convert into a 787 route. And on June 26, the Dallas-Fort Worth-Shanghai route will switch from a 777-200 to the 787.

“The best routes for the 787 are longer routes. That’s why we announced that the inaugural flights are going to be to Asia and to deep South America,” said Chuck Schubert, American’s vice president of network planning.

“It’s going to be markets like that that will be best served, to leverage the efficiency of the 787,” he said. “To leverage those economics of the fuel efficiency, you really want to stretch it as far as you can. So flying Dallas-Beijing or Dallas-Buenos Aires is really going to help us do that,” he said.

With improved engines and a lighter airframe because of the widespread use of composites, the Dreamliner’s fuel savings promise to be significant, especially compared with American’s thirstier planes.

Consultant Scott Hamilton of Leeham & Co. said the best airplane to compare the 787 to is the Boeing 767-300ER, a mainstay of American’s international fleet since 1988. The 767 was the airplane that the 787 was designed to replace, he said.

“Boeing has said the airplane would be 20 percent more economical than the 767-300ER,” Hamilton said. “Some airlines have had better results. Some airlines have had not quite that aggressive a result. But from the airline perspective, it certainly costs less than the 767 to operate. That’s very important to airlines.”

On a 4,000-nautical mile trip — slightly less than Dallas/Fort Worth to London — the Boeing 787-8 model that American has bought will use about 12,850 gallons of jet fuel. American’s comparable Boeing 767-300ER, configured to 209 seats, will use about 13,980 gallons.

Based on $2-a-gallon jet fuel, that means it would cost American $113.80 per passenger to make that trip on a Boeing 787, compared with $133.80 on the 767.

For the entire trip, American would pay $25,700 to carry the 226 passengers on the 787 vs. $27,960 for 209 passengers on the Boeing 767. That’s 17 more passengers with a fuel bill that’s $2,260 lower.

777S due for revamp

American also is taking steps to improve the economics of the larger Boeing 777-200. Over the next few years, it plans to revamp the interiors and boost the total seating from 247 to 289 — a tried-and-true method to boost revenue.

“In fact, the first heavy check you have to do on this airplane to really open it up and take a look at the structure is now 12 years, compared to eight years for a typical airplane,” Tinseth said. “So those things are already proving themselves today.”