Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. The 787 was built to fill the niche in the mid market range with superior fuel efficiency. What do you think of the A380 market?
I believe the A380 has a very limited market. Basically, look for where a single airline has at least three daily 747 flights for a city pair, and that is where an airline is likely to replace that with two A380s. The airline still wants multiple departures for both customer choice and for connections.
New York to London, San Francisco and Los Angeles to Tokyo, and a few others are likely opportunities.
The real changes in international travel will continue to be the increase in point to point long-range international travel, brought about by the Boeing 767 and 777.
To give an example, as this thread is about Delta Airlines, Delta offers the following long-range nonstop international flights from Atlanta Georgia using 767s and 777s:
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Dublin, Madrid, Manchester, Lima, London, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Rome, Stuttgart, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Shannon, and Zurich.
These point to point flights are the wave of the future. Not hub and spoke operations into JFK, LAX, SFO, and MIA.