hayzel7773

I don't mean just those people. I am talking about the Taiwanese population in general, they are very price sensitive.

CommentatusMaximus

Huh, that's a strange way of putting it. I'd say most economy travelers are "very price sensitive" by definition whether in Taiwan or globally.

Virginia Emery

Every population is very price sensitive, see the success of Allegiant Air, Frontier, Spirit, Southwest, AirAsia, and the countless ULCC everywhere

The difference you're talking about is if it is SEM or not. SEM = Someone Else's Money - like your work is paying for the flight - that's when you're picky about everything

username

As others have posted, this behavior is not limited to the Taiwanese.

The ONT-TPE flight would be for people who hate to drive through LA to get to LAX - O is ONT and D can be anywhere in Asia or Australia/NZ where CI flies I think CI will start with a good base of existing passengers living in that part of SoCal and hope to get some additional business from new customers who want the convenience. They can also redirect their shuttles to ONT. It will be interesting to see which time slot they use for the flight (i.e. focusing on TPE passengers or transit passengers).

brabb12

​​​​​​
for people who are traveling anywhere in south Asia, this is a great alternative for them since usually those passengers are tourists that like to be simple travelers, and nothing is more simpler and easier than going through ONT airport. I expect a lot of good things from this flight and service.

barracuda93

Very weird statement. They are in general "price sensitive" as any other human beings in developed countries.
(I live in Taiwan by the way for past 5 years.)

hayzel7773

Frankfurt has switched to an A350 for S18. Could we see a 77W for the ONT route?

tris06

If so then they must be pretty confident of getting large loads from ONT.

Also S18 isn't that later than some were expecting?
Some were hoping for January/February 2018.

I suppose in the Summer season from June it will be packed with loads of tourists but all year round would be quite a step.

coolfish1103

77W is not even fully utilized with checks and maintenance in place.

3x TPE-LAX
2x TPE-JFK
2x TPE-FRA

3x Regional/Maintenance

hayzel7773

JFK is being reduced to 1.5 planes with the reduction to 4x weekly next month.

bzcat

coolfish is probably right that CI will use 77W for ONT so they don't have two separate cockpit crew rotating thru LAX/ONT.

If they use A359 and ONT is less than daily, it can get expensive to stage the extra crews for proper rest time. Whereas using 77W, the crew and rotate from TPE-LAX to ONT-TPE and vice versa.

But that probably means they will have to reduce the frequency at LAX instead of down gauge 1 or the 2 flights.

TPE-ONT is probably ideal for 787-8 but CI doesn't have anything like that in the fleet.

tris06

I read somewhere that the cabin in the B777 was a bit heavy compared to what they were expecting. Not sure if this is true with the a350 as well.

So that might be the reason it was pulled off a few long hauls.

It does seem that the a350 is a much better fit with CI as apart from LAX most other long haul routes don't really need the extra capacity of the B777. JFK could go A350 if they are struggling to make it profitable. Filling the plane maybe but very low yield to do it.

brabb12

​​​​​​there goes my idea of plan of ONT getting the a350. Darn

I'd feel bad for the flight attendants if they had to work the L.A. flight, and then go to ONT for the return back to TPE.

I know a flight attendant who does that for JAL. She has to commute to return to NRT after arriving in KIX from the LAX route.

​​​​​​So does anyone think ONT will start this year with service to TPE? Kind of late if they wanna start this year.

hayzel7773

I don't think so. It is really late to start this route and they are focused on the LGW launch.

coolfish1103

TPE-JFK is likely to be back to 5 weekly or even daily next summer, so I think keeping that as utilizing 2 daily is safer. TPE-FRA is still in the air going to 359 as someone indicated CI has swapped 77W back.

Technically it's possible for them to use A359 if they do not reduce the frequencies at LAX cause it's current rotation for crew is pretty much at it's maximum.

Monday CI 6 > Tuesday CI 7
Monday CI 8 > Wednesday CI 5

...and given 12 weekly some rotations will be CI 6 > 5 and CI 8 > 7.

If they reduce frequencies then likely ONT will be 77W.

...though if I were CI I would not reduce frequencies, instead I would substitute 359 on all TPE-LAX flights and then add 3-4 weekly flights to TPE-ONT as 359. The 4 planes utilizing this schedule would then come from YVR and SFO, with these destinations utilizing 77W instead.

TPE-LAX 12-14 weekly 359
TPE-ONT 3-4 weekly 359

TPE-YVR 7 weekly 77W
TPE-SFO 10-11 weekly 77W

ONT is not that far and going from LAX to ONT is likely going to be less traffic. If it's a night flight then likely they won't hit traffic at all going from ONT to hotel in LA.

Unlikely for ONT service to start end of this year cause it's all the facilities are not ready at all. I think the earliest we can expect is Lunar New Year in February.

Well still the plane is for long haul and should be utilized for long haul flights. What's the point having these frames flying short-haul flights where it's not economical to start with...

They can easily do SEA with a 77W and it's not that long compare to all other destinations.