The Problem is...
Arik performances in 2010
Los-jfk: 27%
Los-lhr: 61%
Los-jnb: 31%
Abv-lhr: 17%
These are all loser routes, the Long Haul LF is all Economy low yield pax. The only way to make money year round is to fill up Business Class and Premium Economy which relies on a global network feed and / or a Global Brand as the NG / UK markets alone do not supply enough high yield pax.
At best Arik are covering their costs plus marginal profit to LHR & JFK in July, August, first half of September, December and first week of January. All other months will be a catastrophic loss.
JNB will be losses all year round with even Business Class at too low a yield in order to compete with SA.
The routes do put foreign exchange into the pot, for immediate cash flow, to pay operationally critical suppliers but the pot will run dry soon as the negative drain continues.
Domestic routes generally do not provide enough yield to support decent profits to maintain an operation with the exception of ABV-LOS - but with over capacity throughout driving down yields even this may prove to be loss making.
VK have Regional sewn up at the moment which offers good yields but not much scope for serious expansion