Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
Thanks - I'd assumed that the larger aircraft would be cheaper per seat.
I was just wondering about the assumption that if a route was marginal with 100 pax on a 150 seater, then all you had to do was put a 100 seater on the route to make money.
My thinking was that the 100 seater would be cheaper overall, but more expensive per seat - so you'd need to charge more.
It's even more complicated than most think. Different engines have different maintenance cycles and are more efficient in different stages of flight. A heavy being used on trans continental routes will have different engines fitted than one being used domestically in Japan for example.
An aircraft operating a route at the upper limit of it's range might actually cost more than a slightly larger one with greater endurance on the right engines with the same passenger load.