Originally Posted by
MANFOD
Quoting Navpi: -
Not sure if representative but interestingly BA fare LHR JFK is over £132 cheaper from LHR than same dates 1st week July than EI Ex Manchester to JFK.
Is that to make up for lack of premium ?
It seems a nice hike .
It used to be said that because airlines flying across the pond from LHR, (I'm thinking BA in particular), were able to attract plenty of people up front at premium fares, they were happy to discount economy prices to help fill up seats at the back. Whether that was direct by the airlines or through other booking agents, and whether it still holds, I don't know. Maybe Skip can tell us.
Of course, if demand is strong on a particular day from MAN, that will be reflected in the EI price.
It's one of the rare benefits of the well off traveller or people on expenses going off on a business jolly subsidising something nice for the rest of the population, but it does mean that there's a lot of very good deals on LHR-JFK which has a much wider impact on the ability of other airports to compete. especially against a very attractive price point. One of the consequences of supply and demand is that there's not the same wild demand for premium seats elsewhere so the price point across the other cabins needs to be set higher. But they do still need some of those lower priced travellers to fill the cabins but they've gone via London instead. Similar to why LHR-PER direct commands a premium over UK-DXB-PER.
I think Aer Lingus took a sensible decision to keep their fleet flying by opening MAN, my worry is that with DUB bouncing back, will their heart be in a MAN base on an arms length AOC or will they just simplify it and make the most bang for their buck at home base in Ireland? I would bet that like any business, there's a good argument to move the MAN fleet back to DUB, now whether that's cold numbers or stratetgic focus and politics, we shall see. Hopefully the counter-argument of doing something worthwhile in MAN wins, but it will need supprt, not just something to keep 2 frames busy uintil something else comes along.
Not even sure it's an IAG thing, it's likely a decision for the op-co in Dublin rather than the group. If they have a determination to make it work, then some Iberia A330 frames may be a good use of IAG assets as IB get more A359s. Brand recongnition is often over rated as many use price comparison sites and "Norse" doesn't sound like a London operation but seems to do well out of LGW.
Apologies, I see downwind_left just made a similar post.