Richard Aboulafia, a prominent aviation consultant, said the Dreamliner will be crucial for American as it competes with United and Delta to attract premium passengers on international routes. He suggests that American will fly it to Asia, the Middle East and secondary cities in Europe. "It is absolutely the plane you want to fly point-to-point internationally," he said, "and it's at its best at longer ranges" where the fuel efficiency pays off most.

The venture had the good fortune to propose a brand-new engine concept in the mid-1970s, around the time that the United States Air Force was considering a revamp of its entire fleet of aerial refueling tankers. At about the same time, Boeing and Airbus were preparing to develop the generation of short-range single-aisle jets that have become the workhorses of the air travel industry. “From an industry standpoint, this was a winning lottery ticket,” said Richard L. Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia.

The business aviation market’s shift toward larger aircraft continues, and the effect on the industry is growing, according to Teal Group’s latest annual business jet overview. “Last year saw a welcome but largely meaningless upturn, with an impressive 16.3-percent increase in deliveries by value,” said Teal vice president of analysis Richard Aboulafia. “But all of this growth came from large-cabin jets, particularly Gulfstream’s G650. All the smaller segments remained firmly stuck in first gear.”

During the 2008 to 2012 decline, the top half of the market–jets costing $26 million and more–actually grew slightly in value, he added, while the bottom half suffered a catastrophic 56-percent drop. “The growth we saw in 2013 means that market bifurcation has gone into overdrive,” Aboulafia explained.

“This is currently the only business jet with a premium in the used market that I’m aware of,” Teal Group aerospace analyst Richard Abouafia told AIN. “Gulfstream has a five-year head start over Bombardier’s Global 7000, which won’t enter the market until 2017. It’s almost unheard of for anyone to have this kind of market all to themselves for this long."

Created in 1944, Montreal-based ICAO coordinates between the 191 states that have signed the Chicago Convention, the main treaty that governs civil aviation. The organisation sets binding standards, and prefers to find a consensus among member countries, which is time-consuming. "The real issue is who is in charge of mandating better tracking," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, in Fairfax, Virginia. "If it is the industry, they will have to bear all the uncertainty about technical change, negotiations with pilots and so on. It is not just about nickel and diming in safety, there is real uncertainty."