Keg
For most of my long but not so distinguished career the great circle distance SYD-MEL was 707 km. What happened? Or where you looking at the longest SID-longest STAR air route?
That aside.....do not rely too much on what is a simplistic (no disrespect) piece of arithmetic...even assuming your cost/ASK is correct, you can't draw inferences on subsidies, losses etc from any of this, sorry.
If I get some time I would be happy to write more on this and may well do so. It would be a good thread starter and might encourage a few others who have made their living in this form of analysis to contribute. The analysis would cover price elasticities in each of the market segments, behaviour of the fixed/variable cost mix by route and utilization, transfer pricing mechanisms, cash flow vs accrual accounting, reaction to competitors' strategies, "whole of group" competitive strategies, short and long-run average and marginal cost curves, yield management strategies for the route, company and "whole of group", predatory pricing and capacity management issues, yield mix down the aisles of the aircraft, cost of brand building, building a marketing database, history lessons from European and US "fare wars", building loyalty mechanisms, capacity constraints at key airports, labour cost and flexibility, costs of different types (by seat, trip, route, life), ratio analysis (revenue per seat in the air, revenue per employee, aircraft utilization etc etc) and lots more......
Anyone else who thinks a "real world" (vs Business School) thread on airline economics and marketing would be useful...put your hand up. It could be interesting to sort out some wooly thinking and educate ourselves.