IT MAY SOUND like hyperbole, or just plain hype, to suggest that a new model of jetliner can change a region’s destiny. But when a publicity tour for the new Boeing 787 — the so-called Dreamliner — stopped at Logan Airport earlier this month, the palpable excitement among local aviation officials, travel aficionados, and business leaders was entirely warranted.
The 787, with its smaller capacity and greater fuel efficiency than other long-range jets, should make it possible for airlines to offer international flights through mid-sized US markets such as Boston. The first test of this theory begins April 22, when Japan Airlines begins a new nonstop route between Boston and Tokyo’s Narita Airport – the first use of the Dreamliner at a US airport. If this route succeeds, Massport, the authority that runs Logan, will have an easier time persuading carriers to offer service from Boston to China, Brazil, and other long-haul destinations.
Greater Boston, which currently lacks direct air links to the world’s emerging economic powers, needs to make the most of this rare opportunity to improve its global connectivity. More than 300 local businesses agreed to take part in a task force to convince carriers of the viability of nonstop service between Boston and Asia, according to Betty Desrosiers, Massport’s director of aviation planning and strategy. This effort swayed Japan Airlines. Now local employers who send their workers to Asia should make use of the new Tokyo route, which is expected to succeed if it lures 60,000 of the 406,000 passengers who travel from Boston to points in Asia via Narita every year.
For Bostonians who travel internationally, it’s easy to envy New York and Chicago – air hubs whose residents can reach key markets in Asia and Latin America in a single flight. The lack of nonstops from Boston to Shanghai or Sao Paulo reflects the limitations of the available equipment. An Airbus A380 can seat 500 or more passengers. When such a jet is loaded with people, baggage, and the fuel it needs to fly to airports in Asia, the runways at Logan aren’t long enough to accommodate it properly. Meanwhile, there aren’t yet enough passengers between Boston and, say, Beijing to fill the largest jets on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, these constraints become self-reinforcing; the lack of a direct connection between Boston and many of the world’s boomtowns hampers business and cultural links. Meanwhile, as US airlines channel their international flights through a small number of hubs, those hubs reap substantial benefits; the area around Chicago’s O’Hare Airport has become a global business center. And the emergence of ever-larger jets, such as the A380, has further entrenched those hubs.
The 787, with its smaller capacity and greater fuel efficiency, should make it possible for airlines to offer international flights through markets such as Boston.
While the Dreamliner should eventually promote a shift toward point-to-point aviation, US airlines won’t quickly dismantle the international hubs where they’ve already invested so many resources. So for now, Logan has a reasonable strategy of pursuing overseas carriers that currently aren’t flying into Logan Airport. Offering incentives, such as reduced landing fees during the first two years of the flight, is a reasonable sacrifice.
Greater Boston has been a small enough aviation market to be seen as a secondary priority by many airlines. But it’s big enough to include travelers and businesses whose global aspirations can expand dramatically as Logan expands its international footprint.