Originally Posted by
EK77WNCL
I am aware of the difference between full and yield, but the TOM flight back was certainly full, there were 4/5 spare seats on the aircraft.
I would know what a 60/70% LF looks like, having flown an EZY A319 with around 100 pax (64%) and an ERJ 135 with about 15 (40%), the aircraft feels much more empty than it is. In the case of the 135 it barely felt like there were any other passengers at all. I'd safely say there were 150+ on the aircraft.
I expect the yields were trashed on the Ryanair flight, but I imagine TOM probably did quite alright. I booked the flights 4 days in advance.
I think you're struggling with the concept of airline economics here
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TOM are a tour operator, so the flight yields (as you say) are pretty immaterial since the price of the packages have already been sold. Very, very few seats on TOM flights are seat-only. Ancillary revenues on-board the aircraft make up some of the yield, but as i say the vast, vast majority of the yield comes from the holiday package where the purchaser never sees the direct flight cost.
Contrast this to FR who are a scheduled, flight-only operator. Actual ticket cost is the contributory factor of yield in this case with considerable ancillary revenue streams also. There's a vast difference to the TOM case.
I love this old analogy of counting passengers, it actually counts for nothing. What if a FR flight was 189/189 loaded, but each passenger on there only paid £20 ? Vast difference. Only the airlines know how much a flight is making, it's sensitive commercial information. The number of armchair CEO's on this website who claim to know all, particularly what flights are doing 'well' or 'not so well' absolutely baffles me
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And yes if the price you paid was low 4 days in advance (relatively short notice on airline terms), then chances are that flight was 'not so well' as the flight was relatively low down on the pricing structure. FR charge their maximum fares at least 2 days from the actual flight, peaking on the day of the flight to make cash from those who are lastminute.com.