I would like some of your thoughts on yield management. I think what venk said, and I am paraphrasing, is that yield management is about screwing every possible dollar out of each flight. His concern was that while that might seem a good idea from a profitability standpoint, the mathmatics of it necessarily ignore the intangible factor of loyalty. Weigh in here if I am misrepresenting you, venk. Lest anyone dispute what yield manahement is, let me borrow from another large and respected airline and direct you to the fact sheet on yield management here, where it says: "Airlines adopted yield management systems ... to maximise revenue returns from each flight."

Your examples of fare availability reductions for corporates does not mean that the yield management process is changing in any way, nor that yield management as a tool for maximising revenue is not being used. All it means is that certain fares are unavilable to certain corporate clients. Cutting out Y and B fares doesn't make K fares, or any other fares, any cheaper, better utilized, or more logically restricted.

I think the concern being expressed is that yield management is being used in too heavy-handed a fashion, and that it needs either take into account, or be deployed with, more sensitivity to certain non-measurable factors like loyalty. I have no idea how that could/would be done, and would be interested to hear your opinions.