I know I'm young, new to the industry and Pprune, but I hope I'm not completely silly.
If an airline trys a route then decides its not working, so pulls out, is that not wiser than continuing on regardless? And if they don't try the route to see how they go, then how do they know if it is a good route or not.
No one does MEL to Honolulu or BNE to Honolulu, so why wouldn't you try it? I went there with the wife for our honeymoon and had to go thru bluddy SYD. That meant a Qantas flight to Sydney, collect our bags, change terminals, then line up for hours to get through customs for the Jetstar flight.
I'm guessing the MEL - BNE and BNE - MEL stuff (that I spose I'd be flying if I get a start on the A320) is to feed Brisbane pax onto the Melboune to Honolulu flights (and vice versa) which would give each city more choices and flights - that seems to make sense to me? If you can't travel on the days of the direct flights you can go with the same airline via a friendlier experience than that god awful Sydney terminal setup. Especially great if your bags are checked through and stuff.
Mind you, I understand that to make a small fortune in aviation ya gotta start with a large one - so what would I know?