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Wide-Body Aircraft Guide

All wide-body jets in Tailwinds compared: seats, range, lease cost, fuel burn, and per-seat economics. Pick the right twin-aisle for long-haul expansion.

Widebodies are how a Tailwinds airline goes intercontinental — and how plenty of them go bankrupt. A twin-aisle jet carries two to three times the passengers of a narrow-body, costs several times as much to lease, and burns fuel accordingly. On a dense long-haul trunk route it prints money; on a thin route it is the fastest way to destroy a healthy balance sheet.

Fill rate is everything at this scale. A 300-seat jet at 85% load is a triumph; the same jet at 45% is a weekly six-figure loss. Before leasing any aircraft on this page, be confident the city pair can actually fill it — big populations at both ends, ideally with hub feed behind one of them.

How to choose

Modern twins (787, A350, 777) dominate the efficiency table and should be your default for new long-haul flying. Older types — A340s, early 777s, the 767 family — lease for dramatically less and remain sensible on routes you have already proven, or as a bridge while you build cash. Watch range carefully: ultra-long-range variants carry a lease premium you only earn back on routes that actually need it.

All 30 aircraft at a glance

Figures are the game's actual values. Fuel cost assumes the base fuel price of $1.20/litre — the live market price in your save drifts between roughly half and nearly double that, which is why fuel hedging matters.

AircraftSeatsRangeCruiseLease/wkPriceFuel/100kmFuel/seat-kmFuel rankLease/seat
Airbus A310-300 280 9,600 km 870 km/h $27K $11M 746 L 3.86¢ 24 / 30 $96
Airbus A310-200 280 6,800 km 870 km/h $36K $15M 798 L 4.13¢ 27 / 30 $129
Boeing 767-200ER 290 12,200 km 870 km/h $40K $16M 627 L 3.14¢ 20 / 30 $138
Ilyushin Il-96-300 300 11,500 km 870 km/h $109K $50M 1150 L 5.56¢ 29 / 30 $363
Airbus A300B4 345 5,400 km 870 km/h $38K $16M 947 L 3.98¢ 25 / 30 $110
Ilyushin Il-86 350 5,000 km 870 km/h $40K $20M 1395 L 5.78¢ 30 / 30 $114
Boeing 767-300ER 351 11,090 km 870 km/h $68K $28M 703 L 2.90¢ 18 / 30 $194
Airbus A300-600R 361 7,700 km 870 km/h $58K $24M 865 L 3.47¢ 21 / 30 $161
Boeing 767-400ER 375 10,415 km 870 km/h $87K $36M 710 L 2.75¢ 14 / 30 $232
Douglas DC-10-30 380 9,700 km 870 km/h $43K $22M 1319 L 5.03¢ 28 / 30 $113
Boeing 787-8 381 13,620 km 870 km/h $296K $135M 674 L 2.57¢ 8 / 30 $777
Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 400 6,670 km 870 km/h $35K $18M 1117 L 4.05¢ 26 / 30 $88
Airbus A330-200 406 13,400 km 870 km/h $134K $55M 746 L 2.66¢ 11 / 30 $330
Airbus A330-800neo 406 15,100 km 870 km/h $231K $95M 690 L 2.46¢ 2 / 30 $569
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 410 12,455 km 870 km/h $70K $35M 1040 L 3.68¢ 22 / 30 $171
Boeing 787-9 420 14,140 km 870 km/h $336K $150M 718 L 2.48¢ 4 / 30 $800
Airbus A340-300 440 13,500 km 870 km/h $80K $40M 925 L 3.05¢ 19 / 30 $182
Airbus A330-300 440 11,750 km 870 km/h $170K $70M 794 L 2.62¢ 10 / 30 $386
Airbus A350-900 440 15,000 km 870 km/h $403K $185M 780 L 2.57¢ 9 / 30 $916
Airbus A350-900ULR 440 18,000 km 870 km/h $423K $195M 813 L 2.68¢ 12 / 30 $961
Boeing 777-200ER 440 13,080 km 870 km/h $117K $48M 854 L 2.81¢ 16 / 30 $266
Boeing 777-200LR 440 15,843 km 870 km/h $207K $85M 872 L 2.87¢ 17 / 30 $470
Boeing 787-10 440 11,730 km 870 km/h $365K $165M 756 L 2.49¢ 5 / 30 $830
COMAC C929 440 12,000 km 870 km/h $293K $109M 820 L 2.70¢ 13 / 30 $666
Boeing 777X-8 445 16,090 km 870 km/h $471K $195M 861 L 2.81¢ 15 / 30 $1,058
Airbus A330-900neo 460 13,334 km 870 km/h $268K $110M 723 L 2.28¢ 1 / 30 $583
Airbus A340-600 475 14,600 km 870 km/h $96K $48M 1250 L 3.82¢ 23 / 30 $202
Airbus A350-1000 480 16,100 km 870 km/h $463K $210M 848 L 2.56¢ 7 / 30 $965
Boeing 777-300ER 550 13,650 km 870 km/h $403K $170M 951 L 2.51¢ 6 / 30 $733
Boeing 777X-9 550 13,500 km 870 km/h $520K $215M 938 L 2.47¢ 3 / 30 $945

Six wide-bodies that pay for themselves

Thirty types are listed above and most of them will quietly bleed you. These six are the ones that reward the effort: one to start with, one to grow into, two that solve a specific problem cheaply, and one you should walk straight past however good it looks in the table. Every number below comes from that table.

Boeing 767-300ER — the cheap way into long-haul

Lease this one, and lease it rather than buy it. At $68,000 a week it is the second-cheapest lease of any wide-body that reaches beyond 11,000 kilometres, and its 11,090 kilometres of range covers most transatlantic and plenty of transpacific work. The catch is the bill nobody reads: maintenance runs $140,000 a week, more than double the lease, so your real fixed cost is $208,000 before a single litre of fuel. Your whole $10M starting balance is about forty-eight weeks of that with no revenue at all, which is why the $28M purchase price is not a turn-one conversation.

Its cheaper sibling, the 767-200ER, leases for $40,000 and actually flies further at 12,200 kilometres, but it burns 3.14 cents per seat-kilometre against the -300ER's 2.90 — 8% more — and gives you only 290 seats to spread costs across. Take the -200ER on a genuinely thin pair; take the -300ER when you have a market that fills 300 seats. Either way, 8,500 feet of runway is a mild constraint, and 351 seats at 45% is 158 passengers paying a bill that was written for 351. Get the fare and demand maths right before you sign anything.

Airbus A330-200 — the workhorse you upgrade into

Once your 767 routes are spilling traffic above 80%, this is the replacement. The A330-200 costs $134,000 to lease and $145,000 to maintain, so $279,000 fixed — $71,000 a week more than a 767-300ER. That buys 55 extra seats, 2,310 extra kilometres of reach, and 2.66 cents per seat-kilometre against 2.90, roughly 8% less fuel for every seat you move. Put another way: an A330-200 flying at 87% load carries as many people as a 767-300ER filled to the last seat, and it does so on cheaper fuel.

Range of 13,400 kilometres opens nearly every intercontinental pair worth flying, and it needs only 8,000 feet of runway — no aircraft in the table with more range gets into a shorter strip. That combination is the quiet reason the -200 outlives flashier jets in most fleets: it can serve secondary airports that lock out the 777s entirely. Buying costs $55M, which is almost exactly 410 weeks of the lease — the same ratio you will find on most modern types here, so ownership is a cash-flow decision, not a bargain. Lease while you are still opening routes; buy once the network stops changing every few weeks.

Boeing 777-200ER — 440 seats on a bargain lease

Four hundred and forty seats for a $117,000 lease is the cheapest large cabin in the game that does not come with a serious fuel penalty attached. Only two long-range jets of similar size lease for less — the A340-300 at $80,000 and the A340-600 at $96,000 — and they burn 3.05 and 3.82 cents per seat-kilometre against the 777's 2.81, which is 9% and 36% more fuel on every seat you carry. If you have found a fat market and cannot yet fund a neo, this is how you serve it.

Read the maintenance line before you celebrate, though. At $200,000 a week it exceeds the lease by $83,000 and beats the far newer A330-900neo's $165,000 despite carrying twenty fewer seats, so your true fixed cost is $317,000 — and an ageing airframe means that number climbs while mechanical failures start appearing. It also demands 9,500 feet of runway, which quietly deletes a slice of the airport list. Against the A330-900neo it saves you $116,000 a week fixed but burns 23% more per seat-kilometre, so the verdict swings with the fuel market: cheap fuel favours the 777, and a price drifting towards $2 a litre hands the route back to the Airbus.

Airbus A330-800neo — long, thin and unusually cheap

Range is the one thing the market charges a fortune for, and this is the exception. The A330-800neo reaches 15,100 kilometres on a $231,000 lease and $160,000 of maintenance, while burning 2.46 cents per seat-kilometre — second-lowest of all thirty types. Only four aircraft in the table fly further, and three of them start at $423,000 a week to lease. The fourth, the 777-200LR, is cheaper at $207,000 but burns 2.87 cents, 17% more fuel per seat-kilometre, on precisely the ultra-long sectors where fuel dominates everything else — and it needs 9,800 feet of runway against the -800neo's 8,000.

Be honest with yourself about whether you need the reach, because the family comparison is brutal. Its sister, the A330-900neo, gives up 1,766 kilometres and hands you 54 more seats for $37,000 more lease. Fixed cost per seat lands at $963 a week on the -800neo and $941 on the -900neo, near enough identical — so within the family, distance is close to free and seats are what you actually pay for. Use the -800neo where the mission genuinely runs past 13,300 kilometres or where an 8,000-foot runway rules out everything else. Anywhere shorter, you are leasing range you never fly.

Airbus A330-900neo — the efficiency leader worth growing into

No other aircraft here moves a seat a kilometre for 2.28 cents. That is 13% below the A330-300 it replaces, 21% below the 767-300ER, and better than every Boeing in the table including the 777X. It carries 460 seats, flies 13,334 kilometres, and needs only 8,200 feet of runway, which is a remarkable trio for one airframe. Maintenance is $165,000 — among aircraft of 440 seats or more, only the smaller, older A330-300 costs less to keep flying.

The barrier is the $268,000 lease, and the honest arithmetic is this: against an A330-300 you pay $103,000 more per week in fixed cost, so the fuel saving has to cover it. A 13% saving only reaches $103,000 once your weekly fuel bill would have been around $790,000 at the older jet's burn rate. That means high utilisation on long sectors, or a fuel market drifting towards the top of its range — when fuel is cheap, the A330-300 is the smarter lease. Once you have a hub feeding consistent 80%-plus loads, the neo stops being an aspiration and becomes the cheapest way to fly a seat anywhere in the game.

Boeing 777X-9 — the trap almost everyone falls into

Everyone wants this one, and the table is why: 550 seats, 13,500 kilometres, and only two aircraft burn less per seat-kilometre. Then you add the columns up. A $520,000 lease plus $290,000 of maintenance is $810,000 a week before fuel — your entire starting balance covers roughly twelve weeks of it. The maintenance charge alone, $290,000, is more than an A330-200 costs in lease and maintenance combined. And that lease equals nearly four A330-200 leases, which is around 1,575 seats spread across four separate markets instead of 550 stacked into one.

The killer figure is fixed cost per passenger. Filled to the very last seat, the 777X-9 carries people at $1,473 each per week; an A330-900neo matches that at 64% load, while also burning less fuel. Worse, the older 777-300ER seats the same 550, flies 150 kilometres further, and costs $643,000 a week fixed — $167,000 less — giving up just 1.6% on fuel burn. So the extra spend buys you almost nothing you can bank. It is a fine aeroplane for a mature airline with one enormous market, a 9,800-foot runway at both ends, and cash to spare. Bought early, it is simply the most expensive way to discover your load factor.

Every type in the category

Reference entries for all 30, in the same order as the table. The table above carries seats, range, cruise speed, lease, price and fuel; these add the runway each type needs and its weekly maintenance bill.

Airbus A310-300

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 7,500 ft · maintenance $120K/wk

Shorter A300 with transcontinental range. A bargain on thinner long-haul routes.

Airbus A310-200

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 7,300 ft · maintenance $125K/wk

Shortened A300 with an advanced wing. An efficient medium widebody for its day.

Boeing 767-200ER

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 8,000 ft · maintenance $120K/wk

Original transatlantic twin. Long range in a smaller widebody package.

Ilyushin Il-96-300

Ilyushin · Wide Body · needs 8,500 ft · maintenance $150K/wk

Soviet-era four-engine wide-body. Long range with unique niche in CIS markets.

Airbus A300B4

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,900 ft · maintenance $120K/wk

The world's first twin-engine widebody and the aircraft that launched Airbus.

Ilyushin Il-86

Ilyushin · Wide Body · needs 8,500 ft · maintenance $110K/wk

The Soviet Union's first widebody. Thirsty engines kept it on medium-haul routes.

Boeing 767-300ER

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 8,500 ft · maintenance $140K/wk

Classic wide-body. Cost-effective for medium long-haul routes.

Airbus A300-600R

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 7,700 ft · maintenance $140K/wk

The original widebody twin. Old tech but extremely cheap on the used market.

Boeing 767-400ER

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,200 ft · maintenance $145K/wk

Stretched 767 with modern winglets. Good capacity for medium long-haul routes.

Douglas DC-10-30

McDonnell Douglas · Wide Body · needs 9,700 ft · maintenance $150K/wk

Classic tri-jet from the 1970s. Very low acquisition cost but thirsty.

Boeing 787-8

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 8,200 ft · maintenance $170K/wk

Dreamliner in compact form. Excellent fuel efficiency for long-haul.

Lockheed L-1011 TriStar

Lockheed · Wide Body · needs 8,500 ft · maintenance $155K/wk

The DC-10's technically superior rival. Rolls-Royce RB.211 engines delivered better fuel economy. Lost the market battle but earned a loyal following for its smooth ride and reliability.

Airbus A330-200

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,000 ft · maintenance $145K/wk

Shorter A330 with excellent long-haul range. Ideal for thinner intercontinental routes.

Airbus A330-800neo

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,000 ft · maintenance $160K/wk

The smaller, ultra-long-range neo. New, efficient engines on the proven A330 airframe.

McDonnell Douglas MD-11

McDonnell Douglas · Wide Body · needs 10,000 ft · maintenance $185K/wk

Tri-jet DC-10 successor. Cheap to buy used but higher fuel and maintenance costs.

Boeing 787-9

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,000 ft · maintenance $190K/wk

Sweet-spot Dreamliner. Most popular long-haul aircraft for a reason.

Airbus A340-300

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 9,500 ft · maintenance $165K/wk

Four-engine long-hauler. ETOPS-free twin-aisle with global reach.

Airbus A330-300

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,200 ft · maintenance $160K/wk

Dependable long-haul twin. Popular on high-demand medium to long routes.

Airbus A350-900

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,000 ft · maintenance $250K/wk

Flagship wide-body. Best fuel economics per seat for ultra-long-haul.

Airbus A350-900ULR

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,900 ft · maintenance $255K/wk

Ultra-long-range A350. The only aircraft capable of operating the world's longest routes.

Boeing 777-200ER

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,500 ft · maintenance $200K/wk

The original 777. Dominant on international trunk routes for three decades.

Boeing 777-200LR

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,800 ft · maintenance $215K/wk

Worldliner. Flies virtually anywhere nonstop, built for ultra-long-haul.

Boeing 787-10

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,000 ft · maintenance $164K/wk

Stretched 787, great capacity but shorter range. Best for busy medium-haul.

COMAC C929

COMAC · Wide Body · needs 9,200 ft · maintenance $200K/wk

China's widebody ambition, a 280-seat twin aimed at the 787 and A330neo.

Boeing 777X-8

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,500 ft · maintenance $275K/wk

Ultra-long-range 777X. Connects the world's most distant city pairs.

Airbus A330-900neo

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,200 ft · maintenance $165K/wk

Re-engined A330 with better fuel burn and intercontinental range.

Airbus A340-600

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 9,800 ft · maintenance $210K/wk

Stretched quad with massive capacity. High fuel burn but very long range.

Airbus A350-1000

Airbus · Wide Body · needs 8,500 ft · maintenance $290K/wk

Stretched A350. Highest capacity twin-engine aircraft available.

Boeing 777-300ER

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,800 ft · maintenance $240K/wk

The freight train of long-haul. Massive capacity, proven on trunk routes.

Boeing 777X-9

Boeing · Wide Body · needs 9,800 ft · maintenance $290K/wk

Next-gen 777 with folding wingtips. Massive capacity for ultra-high-demand routes.

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