Baby Summer 2010

[CVTDog]

My brother had booked MAN to ALC for next summer and got a e-mail yesterday cancelling the flight and offering a refund.

The web shows no availability now to ALC after Jan. '10 when previosuly I think they had a healthy timetable.

Sorry if I have missed this point somewhere else in this section - but, any ideas whats happeneing ?

[TightSlot]

I can only guess - Monarch have pulled off ALC (from LTN if not others) for the winter, leaving the field open for EZ. I'm guessing that with the Spanish property crash, the volume of expat villa travel has reduced somewhat - alternatively, the aircraft can simply be used to make more money for the company flying on another route than on ALC, which is a low-yield and therefore low profit route.

[WHBM]

.......alternatively the aircraft can simply be used to make more money for the company flying on another route than on ALC.
TS, I am afraid this is airline PR-speak when they say they "are redeploying the aircraft to a route where they will make more profit".

If there was any route available where they could make more profit, the aircraft would have been assigned there in the first place, of course. But such new and available routes just do not exist at present.

It always reminds me of Midway Airlines in the USA, the day they went into bankruptcy, where the Chief Exec stated that it was "just a temporary point on the route to substantial profitability". Even the Radio 4 financial jounalist that day laughed openly at that one.

[PilotsOfTheCaribbean]

Monarch?

I thought the title of this thread was Baby Summer 2010.

Monarch are operating this route.

[TightSlot]

PilotsOfTheCaribbean - I intended Monarch as an example of how some airlines are reducing capacity or withdrawing completely from some routes. Monarch have withdrawn from LTN-ALC for the winter season: Baby appear to have done the same on MAN-ALC.

WHBM - The profitability of a route is not a constant - it is a variable: Therefore, airlines will constantly check forecast and actual capacity, equipment, fuel and charges, loads and fares on any route and make commercial decisions on a rolling basis. I would call this process something like 'sound business practise' but you are welcome to call it PR-speak if you prefer.

:)

[PilotsOfTheCaribbean]

Thank you,

Other examples could include Air New Zealand (http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/air-nz-cuts-sees-senior-pilots-demoted-2446192) who reduced their long haul capacity by 8% last Winter. Perhaps British airways, who regularly start new routes and drop old ones to redeploy resources for better perceived revenue.

All companies who want to survive do this in an attempt to maintain profit.