Originally Posted by
BA318
I don't understand why they don't try going back to what made them a successful carrier in the first place - niche routes from LCY.
Some of their old routes have BA on them now but others are available.
There weren't very many profitable VLM niche routes from LCY, though. Antwerp and Rotterdam were the main ones. Brussels worked until Eurostar moved to St Pancras and speeded up; Manchester worked while the train service was poor; Luxembourg just about worked up against Luxair, but ANR and RTM were the heart of the network. Key requirements for success: high proportion of business passengers, highly schedule-sensitive (so frequency and timing was important), high demand for day return flights. See for example
here.
What's changed since those days? Far more competition, not least from BA in LCY. Much higher landing fees in LCY as the owners attempt to get a return on their investment, not least by discouraging smaller aircraft from using scarce slots, Higher fuel prices. Higher maintenance costs for the ageing F50s. And the same challenge that every other regional airline has: how to get and retain pilots?
I wish them well but unfortunately I believe the notion that there is some El Dorado of unserved lucrative routes out there, just waiting for VLM's return, just doesn't stack up.