Wanabench
Yeild / Load Factor Management paid my mortgate for most of my professional life for one of the largest UK Tour ops so am very familiar with this field.
Comaprisions with schedules carries are largely invalid in this area. Inclusive tour combines cost elements, hotels, transfers etc as well as substancially higher cost of sale, eg brochures, higher agents commission etc etc that do not apply to the shed sector. Margins on premium seats are 'icing' not 'cake'
In winter, in my experience with long haul you need to be looking at load factors of 90- 92% (on the flight element) and acceptable yield levels for a route to be viable in the long term. New routes that attract high levels of (free) publicity tend to be forwarded loaded so would have expected a high lf on this service - especially given that as the CWL services dont start until late Mar so FCA have a captive ex CWL market too. Once direct flights ex CWL are available how attractive will a via MAN service be?
Time will tell, the CAA route stats will be interesting......