Cranky Talk – What Would Cranky Airlines Look Like?
When I asked you all to fill out a reader survey, I promised prizes. One of those prizes was that one lucky winner drawn at random would be able to pick a podcast topic, and that lucky winner is Nick.
What did Nick want to know? He asked me what it would look like if I started an airline. Now, I wouldn’t start an airline, but that doesn’t mean I can’t at least talk directionally about what I’d like to see in an airline I’d start.
Listen in to hear me, Dave, and yes, Nick, talk about Cranky Airlines.
Email Dave here. Seriously. Email him about anything. He is bored.
Download it here or listen below.
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Listen to the show for this week’s The Airchive trivia question. See if you know the answer and we’ll tell you if you’re right next time. And for all your avgeeky needs, head to TheAirchive.net for a treasure trove of photos, timetables, and more.
5 comments on “A New Cranky Talk is Live – What Would Cranky Airlines Look Like?”
Was the winner Nick Murray?
Arguendo – He’s asked to be identified just as Nick, so if you know a Nick, feel free to ask him.
Nicely dodged…er…done.
Just spent a little time with GCMap and it looks like an A220-300 *could* make ANC-NRT, though you’d want to run it at low density to give yourself more operating margin. But flat beds up front and 32-33″ pitch in the back should do the trick. But that only gets you to NRT; ICN is exactly at the operating range of the 223, assuming no ETOPS issues.
So the safer bet would be to pull a Breeze with the A321XLR, which could get you all the way to HKG. At which point you’d keep your A220-300s east of ANC, and become the first narrowbody long haul low cost carrier across the Pacific :)
Ian – I wouldn’t trust the A220-300 on that route. Published range is 3400nm and Anchorage – Narita is about 3000nm, but you need ETOPS, reserve fuel. The published range is never realistic. Now, Breeze is talking to Airbus about getting up to 4000nm in which case that would work, but then I think you still have airplanes that are too small. The A321XLR could do the trick, but it’ll be a long time before a startup could get its hands on them (and we assume it performs as advertised). Plus, those won’t be cheap. So I think it would be a challenge, but maybe in 20 years that’ll be the airplane to make it happen!
But more of a sure thing than Boom launching in 2029 ;)