Why turboprops are disappearing from the U.S.

 

They'll be back, once the real cost of fuel hits home, post-Pandemic.

Interesting video, thanks for the link Rockcliffe.

Of course turboprops are not really disappearing from the U.S., though perhaps from airlines. There are plenty of turboprops in non-airline operations all over the U.S., so that headline is a bit misleading. Not too much surprise, I guess, since all too many people think that airlines ARE aviation.

Very simple answer for this which can be summed up in four words:

Range, Speed, Cost, Familiarity

 

As airlines attempt to consolidate to 'multi-role' airliners, the day of the turboprop is starting to fade. With the advent of the 320neo, the A220 and the MAX, the attraction to turboprops has become somewhat less appealing than it was 10-20 years ago. In my opinion, Airlines are now looking for the following advantages:

 

Range - increase operation range across all aircraft types - the turboprops are no match for modern regional jets allowing more and expansive routes which can be served by the same airplanes that can also serve the shorter, reliable routes.

 

Speed - relating to range, the established regional routes can be sped up using jets and offer more flights/day and shorter operation times for crew

 

Cost/Familiarity - reduce training and cockpit variability - turboprops are vastly different in their operation and require a bank of pilots specific to those types. Airlines want to be able to move around their workforce as much as possible and Turboprops create an automatic silo that needs to be managed. In the past, the reduced burn of turboprops justified this as well as the adherence to the traditional hub-and-spoke model - but the introduction of more efficient regional aircraft and movement to point-to-point business models make the fuel benefit of turboprops redundant. Final point on this is the chance to consolidate the maintenance to jet-servicing which reduces complexity on maintenance assets quite significantly.

 

Bottom line: the move to more flexible and efficient trans-region airliners has benefits across the board and will enable much stronger resource management with respect to personnel and equipment. A really good example of this is the A220 which can fly transatlantic from New York and land on the prohibitively short runway at London City. That same airplane can then be used between London City and Dundee (an established UK regional route) with comparable efficiency and cost ppm, using the same pilots and the same crew (or another regional crew trained on the type and ready to go) - that is a powerful and flexible capability.

Edited February 25, 2021 by WillyCanuck