Originally Posted by
TXguy
But not every "cheap" ticket is necessarily loss-making unless they're flying extra planes solely to cart the people paying the cheap fares around.
It costs very little to carry additional passengers if the seats would otherwise be empty.
Of course, but there are definitely routes that continually have low PRASMs and little cargo to compensate.
Originally Posted by
PhilWW262
Surely AA only offers cheap/MR priced tickets because Revenue Management believe they cannot sell those seats at a higher price? Do they really 'chase' low-yield traffic?
I don't think anyone actively chases it, but there certainly has been a drive to consciously reduce targeting this kind of traffic on highly competitive routes like JFK-LAX and chase premium pax instead. It's possible AA doesn't see any changes being necessary if waging price wars and subsidizing low-yielding routes isn't something they plan on relying upon going forward.