Dylan Smith wrote:

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

If you followed the airline industry, you'd realize that the 787 fills a
different market segment than the 777 does. The 787 is not an
intercontinental machine, its a regional machine, and will serve as a
replacement for the 757/767 models.

The 787 is most certainly an intercontinental machine.

One version will have a range in excess of 8,000 nm. (15,000 km), which
will be enough to carry it between the US west coast and Australia.
They are also planning a shorter range version with 3,500 nm range,
which would handle service within continents, as well as shorter North
Atlantic runs.

... in which case why the planet of hell are all the pundits discussing
the A380 and 7E7 as head-on competitors? If that is the case their roles
are completely orthoganol.

The intercontinental 787 may not be a direct competitor with the A380 in
terms of routes. For example, there is now frequent 747 service between
Europe and South Africa. The A380 will likely displace many of the 747s
now in that service, since the passenger volumes can justify larger
aircraft. The 787 might fly the routes, but with limited capacity might
not be the aircraft of choice on the part of the airlines.

The 787 will, however, compete for many of the same passengers as the
A380 on US/European routes, as an example. Airbus is betting that the
larger, more efficient aircraft will be needed for heavy volume trunk
routes, like NYC-LON, NYC-AMS, NYC-FRA, or NYC-PAR particularly in light
of the need for slot controls at some of the airports in those cities.

Boeing is betting that many passengers not destined to the larger cities
would prefer to fly on non-stop flights using efficient aircraft that
serve other airports, but where the routes don't have the volumes to
support the A380. For example, if a passenger wanted to fly between
Raleigh/Durham and Munich, it might be possible to offer a non-stop
flight using a 787, rather than forcing a passenger to be routed through
larger cities on each continent. If the fares are competitive, the
passenger would likely choose the non-stop flight.

Using the South African example, it might be possible to offer non-stop
787 service to Durban for the holiday crowd from a number of European
cities, with would not be justified with a 747 or A380.

It's kind of a parallel to the use of regional jets to fly non-stop
between smaller airports, rather than forcing all passengers onto larger
aircraft routed through major hubs.