Are Ultra Long Haul Flights the Future of Air Travel?

With the changing times there might be a possibility of Ultra Long Haul Flights becoming a new trend of the future.

The Aviation Industry is changing, and it changes at a very rapid phase, some years ago the larger aircraft's were preferred by the carriers as they could carry lots of passengers in one go, but this slowly started changing when the ATF ( Aviation Turbine Fuel) prices rose and many carriers found it difficult to operate the larger aircraft's as there was an Increased Maintenance costs and other expenses that dug a hole in the pockets of Carriers. Now, the Industry wanted an Aircraft that could travel the same distance as of the jumbo jets, but they were much efficient in fuel consumption and maintenance part.

These factors required the manufacturers to come up with a Unique Solution to solve the problem, the result was introduction of Boeing 787 and Airbus A 350.

With the Introduction of these aircraft's the entire Industry has changed, customers are now comfortable travelling on longer haul routes, with the increased cabin comfort and the ambiance offered by these aircraft's.

It was in 2018, when Singapore Airlines launched the longest flight in the World, with flight time touching 19 Hours, although the company doesn't market it for normal travelers, yet its a different story altogether. Another history was made in 2019 when Qantas operated its research flights where the flight time was around 20 Hours, although not a being a normal flight, but Qantas showed its ambition to operate such long haul flights in the future. Which btw. is kept on hold due to current Pandemic.

Now, lets take a step back and try to analyze some of the challenges which the carriers are facing / and have to face while operating such Long Haul flights:-

• Crew:- Pilots and Cabin Attendants form the part of crew in an aircraft, usually in longer haul flights there are two sets of crew that travel according to the given SOP. Its followed correctly but there are some small things that should be considered:-

A) Duty Duration:- It refers to the time period where a particular crew is working, normally the duty duration is divided equally between the crews, however there might be chances of crew shortage which may lead to more duty time and this will result in increased fatigue.

B) Crew Rank:- It may not happen in most of the cases but the human behavior differs from one person to another, normally Higher rank Crews may request for more rest time, which may increase the pressure on lower rank Crews to work for longer time.

C) Hours of Sleep before the flight:- Normal pilot requires minimum 8 hours to sleep to be active during the flight, but due to unusual nature of jobs, this may result in less rest time available to a pilot. The result may be more fatigues experienced by the pilot.

D) Psychological Factors:- With the changing time zones, and lack of comfort, its obvious that there will be a certain degree of discomfort that may result in lack of sleep among the pilots.

• Cost:- This is perhaps the biggest constraint which has impact for both the carriers and the customers.

A) Carriers: - The aircraft's that are used for the Long haul flights have additional fuel tanks, which means that these aircraft's have to carry lots of fuel, which would result in higher cost to a company. These costs must be passed on to the customers which would mean less base of the customers. Not everyone wants to reach their destination in one go, people prefer stay over in Countries rather than going directly to their destination, as its more affordable. As the result the company may have a Kind of a Niche market for the travelers.

B) Customers:- There are not many business travelers in an aircraft who wants to reach their destination in less time, many of the people don't mind reaching late to their destination. People prefer comfort over travel a lot more, also there's a psychological force that acts against the mind. Also with the cost of the tickets going high, its very difficult scenario.

• Cosmic Radiation: - Its one of a kind radiation that is present in the North and South Pole of this World, its a radiation occurring from the cosmos. In a study conducted by an Organization reported that the pilots who traveled to the equators more often have reported 20 MSV's (while the idle should only be 2 MSV's). This radiation is believed to cause Cancer and other deadly diseases.

• Other

A) Regulatory Permission: - Since the procedures and filings are extensive, it takes a lot of time to get approvals from the government and the regulatory bodies to operate such kind of flights.

B) Balancing the Aircraft:- Such aircraft's can carry only limited number of cargo with them as the result the carriers have to be sure that the customers don't carry heavy luggage with them.

These are some of the factors which I feel would be a burden of the Ultra Long Haul Flights.