Long range works for short hauls too, I would think. Quicker turnaround times if you don’t need to refuel as often.
But the point was; jumbos are restricted by the airports they can fly into. Typically, flying out of Indy, we have to fly to Chicago, Detroit, laguardia, or wherever to get on a longer range plane to go abroad.
With newer smaller LR aircraft, we could in theory, fly direct to a smaller airport.
I remember flying on a 737 out of Indy, direct to grand cayman. Granted, it was a travel club flight, but man, that was great. No layovers. Direct both ways. I think Boeing is betting on that sort of flying experience. It willl be up to the airlines to deliver it though.
But Boeing would sell more airplanes, airlines could have more direct flights, and passengers would spend more to flying to where they’re going than sitting on the ground.
Win - win.
“Long range works for short hauls too, I would think. “
Not efficiently. Things are pretty tightly optimized. How long you spend at ‘cruising altitude’ changes the ideal targets for optimization. Airlines these days are trying to squeeze 1 and 2% more efficiency and you can’t get that hauling around large empty tanks and a plane optimizes aerodynamically for an altitude it spends very little time at.