Originally Posted by
Dani
RYR flies from DUB to ORK (Dublin to Cork), which is 144 NM according great circle mapper. EZY does very similar things with comparable equipment. According your theory this would be a perfect turboprop sector. Which, of course, it isn't, because of the volume.
Dani
Except that Aer Arann is giving Ryanair a run for their money on DUB-ORK, with much better load factors (bums on seats) on the ATR 72 compared to FR's 737-800s - which can't reach an optimum cruise alt on such a short sector in any case.
Also, remember that because of their cost structure, LCCs typically need a load factor in excess of 70% to make money on a given route. Can't say for the ATR 72, but I recall that 28 PAX are enough to break even on a (78 seat) Dash 8Q-400 on a typical sector. That's a load factor of 36%...
Cheers
