If there are savings, it would make it in customer’s pockets. Aviation is incredibly competitive
I would, however, bet against them ever achieving that savings. Maybe they can find a battery-electric hybrid configuration that shaves off a percent or two, but I find even that unlikely
For most airlines the biggest cost is fuel, they reliably make the money back on the planes themselves because they run them for 30 years, so it’s a long-term investment but it will pay off.
Over the 30 years this aircraft could theoretically be in operation fuel costs are going to skyrocket. So not only is it saving some money today, it’s saving a lot of money tomorrow. We may even get to the point where aviation fuel becomes literally unavailable, an electric aircraft like this is a pretty good insurance policy. But you do have to buy a whole new aircraft, and maybe you’ve still got 20 years on your current one, so you need to make that money back, and one of the best ways to ensure that you pay off that cost is to have more customers, and the best way to have more customers is to have cheap fairs. You can afford cheap affairs because you’ll feel costs a lower.
Airlines almost never own an aircraft. They sell to banks and lease back, so they have smooth annual OPEX costs, not large CAPEX costs every few years.
How much you want to bet that this 40% savings will never make it to the customers’ pockets?
If there are savings, it would make it in customer’s pockets. Aviation is incredibly competitive
I would, however, bet against them ever achieving that savings. Maybe they can find a battery-electric hybrid configuration that shaves off a percent or two, but I find even that unlikely
Even if they don’t make it, the whole fact that the aviation industry goes less CO2 intensive would be a good win.
You know what would be a good win? Charging customers the same rates to power their homes as the operators of this aircraft.
Ticket prices will in fact go up because they had to spend money on these new planes.
How would they ever recoup their cost? Do you even capitalism bro? (/s)
For most airlines the biggest cost is fuel, they reliably make the money back on the planes themselves because they run them for 30 years, so it’s a long-term investment but it will pay off.
Over the 30 years this aircraft could theoretically be in operation fuel costs are going to skyrocket. So not only is it saving some money today, it’s saving a lot of money tomorrow. We may even get to the point where aviation fuel becomes literally unavailable, an electric aircraft like this is a pretty good insurance policy. But you do have to buy a whole new aircraft, and maybe you’ve still got 20 years on your current one, so you need to make that money back, and one of the best ways to ensure that you pay off that cost is to have more customers, and the best way to have more customers is to have cheap fairs. You can afford cheap affairs because you’ll feel costs a lower.
Airlines almost never own an aircraft. They sell to banks and lease back, so they have smooth annual OPEX costs, not large CAPEX costs every few years.
“Every few years?” You mean every 14 years, right? And this article was even nearly 2 years ago, so theyre probably even older now: https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/aircraft-age-iata-airbus-boeing-b2665192.html
I mean from a fleet of 30 planes they could (in theory) buy/retire one or two a year without big spikes in cash needs.
Question is, are they actually gonna use them now?