To get customers, you have basically three options :
- Offer a service that nobody else offers (obviously not the case here as ACG is not the only operator to offer maindeck capacity between the Far East and Europe).
- Underbid the market prices (possibly the case here but nobody knows the rates they offer).
- Have a very good salesman with some loyal customers that trust him and the service he is able to offer (also possibly the case here). So for the same rate as the legacy rate, the customer will choose you instead of KE, OZ, SQ or CV.
It is sad to say but the salesman is the most important person in the company.
To EAM, you can make profit under 100t payload (although not easily). You just have to choose carefully the routes you fly. Fly an AOG engine or some urgent drilling equipment to Luanda or Lagos and you gonna make profit with 20t payload on a 747F. Flexibility is also a key. Profit can come from how desperate the customer is to fly his freight.
You can also make profit on some US routes if you have the good customer. Fly for the US military and you'll still be able to make profit flying a crap -100F or -200F from the US across the world :-)
That said, I think it is too early to tell if they gonna go bust or not. Time will tell.