Let’s say you’ve done the impossible and convinced a group of rich but naïve investors to back you in the creation a major new U.S. airline. This airline’s route structure would look quite similar to that of American Airlines. You’re planning a strong domestic U.S. network, flights to a few key Asian destinations such as HKG, NRT, OSA and BKK, a large presence in the Caribbean and Central and South America, and good coverage of the major European business centers from the U.S. Your financiers have given you a blank check with which to acquire your fleet. What types would you buy? Here are my choices:

A318/A319/A320 – most domestic U.S., Central American and Caribbean routes and some light-density northern South American flights

757-200 – high-density domestic U.S. routes and some Caribbean, Central and South American flights.

767-200 – long, thin transatlantic flights

767-300 – high-density domestic U.S. routes, high-density Caribbean routes, most South American and most European flights.

777-200 – All Asian flights, a few domestic U.S. hub-to-hub flights, and a few high-density European routes.

This is a pretty boring fleet from a planespotter’s perspective, but I think it would be efficient and would get the job done.