AD et-al only need to cut operating losses by a little over 3% to pay their way.
I am interested in how you got to that conclusion. Can u please post how you managed to calculate that given GF lost 135M last year?
Geting rid of the large loss making routes (US$80M) rather than letting one's ego run wild and maintain them will inevitably produce that
I think it is always the easiest thing in the world to blame network, and not the way finances are done in a company. Let me give an example.
Let us take the SYD route which the last I heard was making 10M loss. Now, in the airline business, revenue on such a route is pro-rated. i.e., revenue is split between this route and all the other routes it feeds. This is called network benefit. If SYD is giving 9M to all other routes (network benefit) it is feeding, then canceling SYD will not mean u are saving the 10M. If fact, you will save only 1M. This is because while u are saving the 10M in cost, u are also losing the 9M revenue of the network benefit.
GF have the Sabre forecasting tools, and I assume you will easily see how SYD helps your network and what effects it will have when it is removed. Looking simply at the the P/L by leg may not give u the entire picture and could make a lot of (incorrect) decisions based on incomplete info.
Just my 2 cents. Nothing personal here guys, I am only interested a good honest conversation.