Within any large company, often the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. They often fail to speak with one voice
Good way to put it, as its basically what I was trying to say. Whilst internal collegues tend to get a heads up on the General public, management will not pass everything down to protect their confidentiality.
All it would thak is for Hong Kong Airlines to jump into MAN first, for example, and not only will that scupper CX at MAN, but also ZRH as it no longer has a viable tag on, but also could affect their LHR ops, as there are a LOT of MAN pax that may be lost to a direct service. You can see why theyd want to keep it close to their chest.
From the business perspective, the marketeers may LOVE to see MAN-HKG, but yield management may be wary and operationally the assets required may get "more bang for your buck" being deployed within an established route
And this is why I think the proposed MAN-ZRH-HKG route would work well, youve basically got 2 chances to fill the cabin and get the required yield, and whilst I appriciate it doesnt translate to yield, with 138000 people transiting MAN-LHR-HKG, its not as if the MAN-HKG market is unproven.
CX have tried to relaunch MAN in 2005, so its evident they do see some potential here.