Originally Posted by
aktchi
Oh, well. This is as good as "invent new generation of hybrid-engine planes and start flying them".
You are right that at this point, there is little chance of star alliance accepting 9W. The only way is if LH (SN owner) were convinced it was in their best interest (the above plan could make SN far more profitable). If LH wanted Jet to join Star and work closely with SN, it might happen.
Originally Posted by
aktchi
Probably harmless, but there isn't much traffic between India and most of those SN cities.
Are you sure?
SN serves most of the biggest cities in Europe. Not much traffic between India and SN's short haul Europe network?
And it wouldn't be just about SN cities <--> India, it would be equally about SN cities <--> USA. I frequently connect via BRU to/from Africa. Many of the people on SN coded ORD-BRU, IAD-BRU, EWR-BRU, etc are going to Africa. Passenger demand to/from Africa is growing steadiliy and 9W could take advantage of the fact BRU-USA is underserved. SN serves a lot of high fare African markets via BRU; advance purchase deep discount economy USA-Africa usually costs ~$2000 RT so fare levels should be profitable.
I agree with you on the important of providing lounge access with enough capacity to be inclusive at BRU.
I also agree that the BRU transit experience would need to be worked on to make it a winner.
The plan would only work with scale. BRU-PNQ can be full and profitable with feed from 20 US non-stops to BRU plus ~20 Europe BRU non-stops on codeshared on SN plus a handful of people coming to/from Africa, all feeding the flight. With just a few BRU-USA flights, the plan would fail. Similarly, BRU-BOS can be full and profitibale with feed from 10 9W India cities, 10 Africa SN codeshare cities, and ~20 Europe SN chodeshare cities but without all those connections wouldn't make a profit.
