Originally Posted by
tictack67
Why do you feel they were not committed?
They offered two Barbados a week and two Orlando at a time of uncertaintyand lockdowns.
They are a business, and if people don't use the service, they should rightly consider their stance and protect their finances.
Question is why it's so much more expensive to fly direct across the Atlantic than go via Europe or London
Economics 101 especially in the back of the bus/Dreamliner.
The major players from the Golden Triangle in a variety of shades of blue, white, grey, and occasional red accent, operate generally high frequencies on prime routes targeted at squeezing yield and for (convenience demanded) for those in bathchair seats, oft leading to massive over capacity in steerage .
That over capacity is price dumped via a range of consolidators lowering prices for many of those seats in economy and frequently below market rate.
Incidentally also putting pressure on those few flexible carriers margins (much to their delights) .
Whilst those lower frequency services from Manchester and Edinburgh and similar sizes European cities are required ( by bean counters) to maintain the recovery margins. At the same time these will inevitably have fewer corporate contracts for the front end seats ( lower yield) and therefore become exposed and risk rationalisation if the general economy travels south .
Use of the 757 whilst providing those links for some years is now hampered with rapidly rising maintenance costs and compounded by the equally claimed poor service for those up front, and that do travel from the regions.
Result is more of the valuable yield potential generating traffic will shuttle to the various hubs; further weakening those remaining services.
Add mileage bribes you see where I am going with this !
Evidence look at the load factors ( not yield) of some of the Heathrow flights particularly in shoulder and winter season - they are dreadful
Also an example of yield potential collapsing due to weaker demand and the loss of corporate business both freight and self loading is that of American services from Manchester to Philadelphia. The service viability pretty well ended when the pharmaceutical trade from Wilmslow evaporated.
This phenomenon is decades old through the alliances have simply emboldened it further in recent years.
Hence the general reductions on secondary routes and high(er) fare demanded on those that do remain.