THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Thursday, March 29, 2018 | A11

LIFE&ARTSNew airlines, new competitors and customers’ eagerness to avoid connections have led to significant growth in transcontinental flights in recent years.

Nonstop Growth

1982

Daily nonstops

Routes16

2017

Daily nonstops321

Routes

Sources: Airline/Aircraft Projects Inc.; Maryland Aviation Administration Mike Sudal/THEWALL STREET JOURNAL.

Airlines have added several nonstoptranscontinental flights at Baltimore-Washington International ThurgoodMarshall Airport in recent years.

Baltimore Flies West

Flights per week from Baltimore to ...

Los Angeles

San Diego

July 2018 July 2013

Seattle

Oakland, Calif.

0

Portland, Ore.

0

0

San Francisco

San Jose, Calif.

0

Sacramento, Calif.

4127

3514

2113

20

2013

14

7

7

53

63

Number of city pairs linked with direct flights in 2017 compared with 1982

SINCE ITS BIRTH in 1970 as a rock-operaalbum, “Jesus Christ Superstar” hastaken form on Broadway, in a featurefilm, thousands of community pro-ductions, a hit concert tour with aJesus chosen via reality show, and afailed concert tour starring formermembers of the Sex Pistols andDestiny’s Child.

Somehow there’s room for an-other first in the musical’s 48-year-old existence, this time as a live produc-tion on broadcast television.

Airing on NBC in prime time on EasterSunday, the show features stars from acrossthe spectrum of pop music (John Legend asJesus, Sara Bareilles as Mary Magdalene, Al-ice Cooper as King Herod) and musical the-ater, including “Hamilton” star Brandon Vic-tor Dixon as Judas.

The once-controversial rock opera about

BY JOHN JURGENSEN

BALTIMORE’S AIRPORT used tobeg airlines for more nonstopflights to the West Coast, but car-riers said no. Now BWI may havetoo many on some routes.

Southwest Airlines flies nonstopto seven West Coast cities fromBaltimore-Washington Interna-tional Thurgood Marshall Airport.Alaska flies to five West Coast air-ports from BWI, Spirit to four. Youcan pick from five daily flights toSan Diego on three different air-lines.

“We have more service to SanDiego than we ever imagined,”says Ricky Smith, the airport’schief executive.

Coast-to-coast flights linkingsecondary cities are letting travel-ers in places like Baltimore, SanDiego, Seattle, Orlando, Fla., andOakland, Calif., bypass midcontin-ent hubs.

There were 158 daily transcon-tinental nonstops 20 years ago,mostly between the New York areaand Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco. Now there are 321 daily non-stops across the country, linkingairports as small as Charleston,S.C. And more are coming.

Fuel costs, more efficient newplanes and population shifts havelet smaller airlines play in the air-line big leagues. Transcon flightscarry high percentages of businesstravelers and garner loyalty fromcustomers because they shrink thecountry in travel time. For airlines,they are high-profile, high-risk andhigh-reward. “These are really im-portant markets,” says Marty St.George, JetBlue executive vicepresident of commercial and plan-ning.

Coastal travelers have benefitednot only from the greater conve-nience of more nonstop flights, butalso more fare competition, evenas the industry has consolidated.

Industry consultant Craig Jenks,president of Airline/Aircraft Proj-ects Inc., thinks mergers amongbig airlines have created morefragmentation of coast-to-coastflying. While Delta, United and

American all swallowedsmaller competitors andclosed hubs in the mid-dle of the country likeCleveland, Cincinnatiand Memphis, Tenn.,smaller airlines saw op-portunities to pick uppassengers by offeringnonstops.

United has the mostcoast-to-coast flights,Mr. Jenks says. But in1997 it flew 41% of alltranscon trips, com-pared with 25% thisyear. Alaska, with itsVirgin America acquisi-tion, now offers 20% oftranscon flights; JetBlue15% and Southwest 4%,Mr. Jenks says. Spirit and Frontierare adding routes, too.

“We’re not through with this ex-pansion,” Mr. Jenks says. Hethinks discounters will launchmore coast-to-coast flights, whichwill trigger more flights from com-petitors. “These markets are tooimportant for the big guys to ig-nore.”

There are three big facilitatorsof the transcon boom.

First, smaller jets like the Boe-ing 737 and Airbus A320 and A321have coast-to-coast nonstop range.

The newest versions, the 737 MAXand the A320neo, are even morefuel efficient, making it cheaperfor airlines to fly transcon.

Second, fuel is relatively inex-pensive, lowering trip costs. Thatmakes many long flights profitableeven with low fares.

It costs about $12,000 at today’sprices to fly a Boeing 757 2,600miles, according to InternationalCivil Aviation Organization data.With more seats to fill than a 737,it is poorly suited for thinnerroutes. A 737-800 would burn

JetBlue says financial results ontranscon routes often trailed therest of the airline’s network, espe-cially when fuel prices were high.That changed in 2014 whenJetBlue added its Mint cabin—lie-flat seats with 15-inch seat-backtouch screens and meal service.The added revenue from premiumpassengers who typically pay $549to $1,639 each way turnedtranscon routes into profit ma-chines, Mr. St. George says.

The airline has engineered atranscon surge since 2014. TheNew York-based carrier grew to27% of passengers flying betweenNew York-Kennedy and Los Ange-les International last year, up from15% in 2014, according toPlaneStats.

Alaska doesn’t offer lie-flatbusiness-class like Delta, United,American and JetBlue. Other carri-ers say it’s critical to profitabilityfor long-haul flights. But Mr. Kirbysays Alaska doesn’t want to getinto that fight. Instead, Alaska isupdating its domestic first classwith new seats and is content touse its first-class cabin largely asan upgrade inducement for fre-quent fliers. “We’re old-school inhow we treat our elites,” Mr. Kirbysays.

All-coach Southwest says it hasadded coast-to-coast flights whereit’s the largest airline at one endor both. The airline, traditionally ashort-hop carrier, isn’t wild abouttranscontinental flying because ittakes up so much aircraft time.

But local business and leisuretravelers want to get to the othercoast nonstop, and Southwest hasfound it needs to stretch to keepcustomers loyal. “We’ve added itmethodically where it makessense, not as a surge,” says An-drew Watterson, chief revenue of-ficer.

One advantage of transconflights: Adding nonstops opens upseats on shorter Southwest flights,because passengers who wouldhave stopped at one or two air-ports are now flying straight on.

about $9,100 worth offuel on the same trip;for a 737-800 MAX, fuelcosts about $7,800.

Third, populationshifts have moved morepeople to the East Coastand West Coast, boost-ing traffic at lots ofcoastal airports.

“We’re going througha new phase in the in-dustry,” says JohnKirby, Alaska’s vicepresident of capacityplanning. Airlines arenow financially healthy.Deeper pockets meanthey can invest in newmarkets.

Los Angeles-Orlandois perhaps the most hotly con-tested route in the country, withsix airlines going head-to-head.The number of travelers flyingthat route nonstop has increasedmore than 15% each of the pastthree years.

Virgin America had the smallestmarket-share—its new ownerAlaska decided it will drop thatroute in July. Alaska added 44 newroutes in 2017 and Virgin Americaadded 38, so dropping Los Ange-les-Orlando was a minor change,Alaska’s Mr. Kirby says.

SAM

HODGSO

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the last week of Je-sus’ life, written by

lyricist Tim Rice andcomposer Andrew Lloyd

Webber, adds to NBC’s un-likely repertoire of musicals. Start-

ing with “The Sound of Music Live!” in 2013,the broadcaster mounted a new exclamation-pointed production every year: “Peter Pan,”“The Wiz,” “Hairspray.” A “Bye Bye Birdie”with Jennifer Lopez is expected next year.

Networks, including Fox, have used themix of classic show tunes, big stars and the

without-a-net element of live TV to try toharness mass audiences that now tend togather only for major sports showdownsand rare television events. They’ve hadmixed results in ratings and execution.

Led by NBC Entertainment chairman andtheater buff Robert Greenblatt, producerschoose musicals based on name recognition,their ability to attract a heavy-hitting castand the most important factor: “Is it appro-priate for a family to gather around andwatch the show together,” says executiveproducer Neil Meron, who has helped over-

see all of NBC’s live musicals.Though it’s a staple, “Superstar” takes

the broadcaster into somewhat edgier terri-tory. “Sound of Music” had its Nazis and“Hairspray” its racial tensions. “Superstar”is, of course, the first NBC musical that willenact a crucifixion.

“Superstar” ranks as one of the most in-fluential pop-culture phenomena of theearly 1970s. Like The Who’s “Tommy,” itwas among the first rock operas, and intro-duced funk guitars and gravelly vocals into a

Please see SUPERSTAR page A12

NBC

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San Diego ranks among the cities to see a boost intranscontinental U.S. commercial air traffic.

THE MIDDLE SEAT | By Scott McCartney

The Rare CaseWhereAirlines and

Passengers BothWinWhat the surge of nonstop coast-to-coast flights says about the state of

flying in the U.S., and why you can expect even more of it

TELEVISION

‘JESUS CHRISTSUPERSTAR’IN A LIVE

TV REVIVAL

Above, John Legend will play Jesus in the live NBC production, with an ensemble cast; left, Alice Cooper as King Herod.

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