Ultra-long range will never be as common place as people think. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly night time curfews: It is difficult enough with long haul flights to match departure and arrival windows often necessitating exceeding long idle times on the ground and/or very inconvenient departure/arrival times. Secondly the tankering of fuel. You have to carry extra fuel just to carry fuel which is weight that could have been freight or passengers if there had been a stopover. They need a very big wing with lots of (fuel storage) capacity, which means lots of structure and weight. Airlines must balance this against any
extra revenue they can charge for a direct flight and the ability to
eliminate the fuel wasted in climbing and descending twice, as well as
en-route landing fees and other costs linked to a stopover. Next is the issue of crewing. You have to have larger cockpit and cabin crew compliments and they need exponentially longer rest times. The extra crew members, and their baggage weight could have been that of paying passengers. You have to provide considerably extra food and drinks. Boeing has sold 59 of its 777-200LR
endurance jet, which entered service in 2007, compared with 687 of the
shorter-range but highly popular 777-300ER. The B787-3 was still born (as will the A350-800) and airlines are exchanging their longer range -8 orders for shorter range -9 orders. Hubs will remain the main way of covering longer distances and give you by far a greater number of destinations for a given number of aircraft. Airlines are consolidating their hubs not making them smaller. Delta airlines is even developing a new on in Seattle. .........But the icing on the cake about bringing up the B777x is that 222 of the 243 b777x orders are for: who other than the Gulf carriers who want them for their hubs.......