Originally Posted by
Atlantico
Not talking only about TMS as it isn't a Business class high yield destination besides honeymooners.
Sorry, I thought you had a bee in your bonnet about Sao Tome.
Originally Posted by
Atlantico
Otherwise how can u explain the benefit of paying C for such routes?
In the same way not-so-special seating in Business is explained on almost all European routes: a degree of ticketing flexibility (YMMV!), more space, exclusivity, better catering, lounge access, dedicated check-in. In short all sorts of (sometimes silly) frills - just nothing special in terms of the seat.
I'm guessing a simple cost/benefit analyis reveals that the costs and inefficiencies involved in dedicated Business cabins on narrow-bodies are not compensated by a increase in network revenues.
Even where there is significant competition on a route, the cost of acquiring dedicated aircraft or re-furbishing existing cabins to match a competitor isn't really on the cards - and reasonably successful airlines find themselves offering standard seats against upgraded ones on long routes (e.g London and Istanbul TK v BA, London Amman RJ v BA, Frankfurt Cairo LH v MS).
BA has some equipment with a "proper" A321 Business cabin (ex BMI I think), and may employ this on longer routes. But the inefficiencies of this anomaly in the fleet were clear on a recent Warsaw London flight, where a handful of us ticketed in economy had to be upgraded to the almost empty 23-seat C-cabin (equivalent to around 70 economy-class seats)