Long-haul
eggc
Leaving yield aside as I doubt few on here (me included) will have a true insight into this area, I would say 66% is low compared to some routes and airlines flying east and west but as the one airline we are discussing is Air India then some would say politics plays more a part than yield.
One thing to note is that part of July is still classed as the low season (Monsoons) and August will show very different figures. Although the service is only two years old there are very distinct patterns with the load factors - May and June bad, July poor and the rest usually good.
As for the American, I would say than 68% is very disappointing compared with other UK-US flights but without yield data it is difficult to know what the future holds for this one. Not sure if something has changed with the US market as both Manchester ATL and PHL two years ago were over 13000 in July but both low to mid 70's this year (assuming all flights operated). Of course Thomas Cook have entered the MAN-US fray and that might have distorted matters but the point is load factors are well below what they have been in the past and there are other examples.
BHX-JFK saw high fares in July and August (not usual of course) but the more worrying figure was May when fares were much lower.
Pete