After looking at aircraft class in last week’s Flight Friday, this week we drill down on the widebody sector. 

The “Big Twins” comprise, in this case, the Airbus A330s and A350s alongside the Boeing 777s and 787s.

Looking at current average monthly flight hours as a percentage of the average monthly hours of 2019 gives us a report card on how the big twins are coming back. In previous editions of Flight Fridays, we normally look at overall hours or cycles, but with the large number of A350 and 787 deliveries since 2019, compounded with A330 and 777 retirements, this will artificially skew the total numbers.

The airframe that had the largest impact from the pandemic was the A330. With a larger exposure to the Chinese market, which only opened up at the end of 2022, the A330 average utilization is only two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels. The A330 has found a new purpose as a passenger-to-freighter aircraft, but with that comes a natural reduction in utilization when compared to a passenger equivalent aircraft.

The A350 and 777 are both hovering at the 80% of 2019 levels, having consistently increased their average hour since February 2022. The 787 is the closest to pre-pandemic levels, sitting near the 90% level. This shows that airlines like the 787 and it suits their route networks, be they hub-to-hub, hub-to-point, or point-to-point networks.

The data also shows that the latest generation of aircraft are preferred to the previous generation (A350s and 787s preferred against A330s and 777s).

This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization tool.