Originally Posted by
rog747
CPT is to be a daily 787 and will be seasonal, with the ''unpopular'' day flight back - although I like it personally. (BA ditched their day flight back to be double daily at night CPT-LHR)
The issue with day-long (on the timetable) daylight flights is their lack of connectivity at one or even both ends. They may be fine for local O&D pax, but that is not a typical aircraft load.
And it's not just air connections. Surface transport can have finished (or not started), especially when you feel the need to give a buffer for delays. There's nothing worse than believing the stuff about doing public transport to the airport, then finding the return is a few hours late and your last train home has gone (been there, done that).
I've done the daylight a couple of times JFK-LHR. As we are discussing Virgin, VS26 departs JFK 0805 and arrives LHR 2005. To make that 0805 you really need to be at JFK by 0635, leaving Manhattan before 0600, so getting up in your hotel before 0500, feeling zonked. And not really practical to come in from much further afield. Into LHR 2005, you are doing well to be out by 2100. Last LHR domestic departure to anywhere is BA at 2105 to Edinburgh, so you are not going on by air. We're in London, so typically home by 2230, but you can't rely on getting that far up country on a train at this time of night. None of these issues arise if you take the traditional overnight flight, and thus the commercial demand is much higher. Westward transatlantic is not an issue because the clock change is the other way.
Long south-north same time zone daylight flights always have this issue, South Africa to Europe or Argentina to New York.