Make or Break USPBC
"I wouldn't see it as a "make or break" perk for a carrier to be sustainable or not. Simple fact is profit must be there without it. Big concern is once current £/$ hedging runs out from the US carriers they could be hit massively. "
I think you may underestimate the impact of USPBC for business travel.
Removing an unpredictable multi-hour delay from immigration adds a usable night onto a trip. That's 33% more usable nights on a Monday to Friday trip. This can easily turn an unattractive routing into an attractive one.
Notice how LCY lost a JFK rotation after USPBC access for it was lost.
I think the real threat to pre-clearance is the expansion of known traveller programs. As these continue to expand out the benefit of pre-clearance to frequent and high revenue pax may all but disappear.
Last edited by pilot9249; 1st Nov 2016 at 17:37.