[bluGill]

Unlikely. Those who really want to get to Stockholm will not get on the NYC to London plane if they can get a direct plane. Substitute ALL other cities in Europe for Stockholm and a fair number of people are not on that plane. Those who do want to get from NYC to London have different schedules, some want to take the 5am flight and get to London in the afternoon, some want to get to the airport at a normal time and still get to London at a good hour. Some want to leave right after the days work is done. Some want a last supper with their family before leaving... Smaller planes are customer friendly. Also smaller planes leaves more room for redundancy - if one plane is broke you have less people who need to be rerouted to some other planes making it more likely you can get everyone to London without a major delay.

[mixmastamyk]

You may be underestimating the number of passengers flying direct between two megacities sharing a similar culture/language.

Here on the west coast there is a packed to the gills flight almost every hour from LA to Houston, and more than one airline servicing the route as well.

[bgorman]

British Airways recently added London-Chicago on a a380.

[selectodude]

They killed their 747 and replaced it with an A380. Always had 2-3 flights per day ORD-LHR.

[_xerxes_]

They also already have a London-DC A380 flight almost daily.

[youngtaff]

And SFO