777 200-LF non stop Dubai to Panama

[art5869 4]

[scandinavian13 5,192]

Seems like a really long journey for a destination that might not generate that much revenue. Seems like a lot of those "world's longest" legs end up being a disappointment. Singapore flew the A345 on some super long leg from EWR to SIN, but at least the NY has a ton of potential passengers. They kept that up for four years and then dropped it. To me, the biggest issue is making sure the passengers don't go nuts. Heck, if I'm going on a west transcon, I'll intentionally stop off at an intermediate destination if I can (because the non-stops are now often flown with narrowbodies, on flights that only slightly longer across the Atlantic would be widebodies, which are slightly more comfortable, but I digress) so that I can get up, stretch, eat real food, and not be bored to tears at cruise.

[gmoneyprs 2]

I still don't think it can get worse than ICE671.

[art5869 4]

What I don't get why did the Emirates use a 777 for this flight and not even an Af 380. Did they think that the number of pass. is too low???

[scandinavian13 5,192]

What I don't get why did the Emirates use a 777 for this flight and not even an Af 380. Did they think that the number of pass. is too low???

 

I alluded to this earlier in the thread. How many passengers do you really think are going to get on a plane for this route, specifically? It's not like Panama is a hub for travel beyond Panama City like some of the Brazilian airports would be for the rest of South America, and North America is served primarily by United States and Canadian hubs. Granted, Dubai is at the top of international passenger movements, currently, but high density usually means hub to hub, and not hub to non-hub.

 

To add some numbers to the game, Panama has about 3 million people as a country. The Washington DC area alone is just shy of 6 million. Emirates doesn't even fly an A380 here (BAW does, as does AFR, but there's clearly a larger market for that route for them). It's an interesting airplane, for sure, but just because it can do it doesn't mean that it should be used to do it.