Originally Posted by
Bergholt
If you extend your argument concerning the wisdom grounding of aircraft in winter, no seaside resort should spend millions of pounds building facilities and entertainments for holidaymakers that are used almost exclusively in the summer months.
This is a seasonal business and if you can ground aircraft during the winter months and still make an annual profit, where's the problem?
The issue is that the overall profit may well conceal some all-year routes making good returns and some seasonal holiday routes that are marginal, using up some of the profits, and not worth doing long term.
If your seasonality can be balanced across multiple different seasons (eg the Canadian charter operators with a winter peak down to the Caribbean, a summer peak transatlantic to Europe, and some Hadj work in between in the Middle East when the dates suit) then you are fine. But for single peaks it can be not worthwhile.
The UK railways, surprisingly belatedly, found this out a generation ago where holiday resorts were overcrowded for about eight summer weekends per year, and deserted at other times; those who saw the large crowds on those odd August Saturdays could not understand how the expensive facilities were actually provided at a large loss.
And yes, seaside resort fixed facilities are so often provided out of public funds for the glory of those elected, without any thought for cost-effectiveness.