Originally Posted by
Capetonian
What is the 'commercial reality' that you are referring to that the 'industry standard' is so out of touch with?
Making a profit as a priority over generating revenue, and if that means using your assets in ways other than their primary purpose, then that's a legitimate use.
Once upon a time, people
did go to the local airport for its social/amenity/leisure value; now most terminals have become little more than glorified bus-stops, expensive to use and maintain. Customers/passengers don't want to spend any longer there than absolutely necessary and airport managers rejoice in statistics that show how many hundreds of thousands of people pass
through their facility.
Knock, Norwich, Kerry and Exeter (and others) reward their passengers by charging them for the privilege of passing through, yet it is the 70% of passengers travelling for "family or leisure" purposes that make the airport viable. Anyone with real business accumen would gently extract 50€$£ per person of pure profit from this 70% and their non-flying entourage by offering the "Christmas tree" experience, and another 20€ from the minority business class to avoid it.
Or to take the petrol station example: if you don't want to queue behind the guys and gals buying their milk, paper and a weeks worth of chocolate, use the 24h self-service pump and pay by credit card.
Alternatively, take the example of a good quality, not-quite-town-centre hotel that buys a classic car, parks it out the front and offers a chauffeur service into the city. 90% of the guests will never use the service, but they'll happily pay a premium to stay in that hotel instead of another because that car, that service, that opportunity to take a souvenir photo, makes them feel special.
And yes, you're right: I do think the business plan will work. As of yesterday, there's about 6m€ worth of funding available to the AOC holder who will agree to fly a minimum of zero block-hours per month - with all costs properly itemised and justified, of course.