Originally Posted by
andrasz
Also the 20 hr sector needs to be compared to two 10.5 hr to allow for another approach/landing & takeoff. But the big savings is doing away with the interim airport landing and handling fees which is a considerable portion of total cost.
Not only a 20 to 21 hour comparison, but there's ground time as well, it seems impossible nowadays to turn a long-haul widebody in less than 1.5 hours, so now 22.5 hours. You also need a commercially sensible intermediate stop bang on the Great Circle track to achieve this. If you are doing passenger work at the intermediate stop it's then a challenge to balance loads equally, every time, on both legs, so some revenue wastage there.