Originally Posted by
Betablockeruk
In conclusion, AA think that the above routes are more profitable than the long standing exclusive ORD-MAN? Something has gone seriously wrong.
In what sense has it seriously gone wrong? I assume you’re not suggesting that American have got their sums wrong and are axing a goldmine route? In the same way as a celeb couple’s ‘trial separation’ rarely leads to a long term reconciliation, so an established year round route going seasonal will have an inevitable conclusion.
Given that their routes from MAN have always had a significant proportion of seats taken by travellers connecting through ORD/PHL etc, then it was certain that the expansion of point to point routes from MAN would have an impact. Although we would hope that the TCX and Virgin expansions will generate new passengers, it’s surely no surprise that traffic will also be taken from existing routes, especially if cutting out a change of aircraft en route becomes an option.
In many ways this is probably good news for the PHL service, as it will consolidate American’s connecting pax onto that service, increasing load factors and hopefully (from the point of view of their beancounters) increase yield.