Originally Posted by
UpInTheSky
In general, the question becomes whether the incremental demand from adding seasonal service is at a profitable fare. Just having demand for a route doesn't make it a viable one, and just because a fare seems high relative to years past doesn't mean it is profitable at today's fuel prices.
I appreciate your answer, but it is a bit circular, amounting as it does to "if it would net UA more, UA would be doing it." I don't know how long ago it was now that fuel prices really took off, but it seems to me that the fares to EZE jumped up before fuel prices did. And fuel prices shouldn't account for very disparate cpms should they? (Because IAD-EZE RT is very close to 10K miles if I'm not mistaken, it is easy to see at a glance what the cpm works out to.)