Originally Posted by
Always Flyin
If it was not profitable, why is DL still flying it?
Pretty simple. UA has NH, OZ and TG in NRT/ICN/HKG to hand off to, CA in PEK, SQ in SIN (I guess, though I would suspect NH wins given the TPAC JV).
Dl has CI in TPE, and CZ/MU in China, plus KE in ICN, who they treat like a redheaded stepchild.
UA has better codeshare partners, in very good hubs. UA has service to NRT from ALL their hubs (even DEN), so handing off to NH is easy. Which SkyTeam Asia hub does DL serve from ALL their hubs comparable to NRT, pray tell?
As I said, both UA and DL are getting rid of their NRT hubs, the evidence is clear (and we can't use the "$mi$ek is an idiot" excuse for DL, given their performance, now, can we?). The reason why DL kept NRT-BKK instead of NRT-HKG is they can't efficiently flow customers to BKK using a partner or their own metal, but they CAN to HKG (using SEA-HKG), so HKG gets the axe, BKK stays. UA can flow traffic to NH or, as a backup, to another *A partner. This isn't rocket science.
Originally Posted by
Always Flyin
Look at the long list of airlines flying to BKK. Think they are doing it solely for the prestige?
Service for BKK from Asia, Africa, India and Europe to BKK is fundamentally different from service from North America. Look at a map if you're wondering why that is, and look at where Hawaii and the Caribbean is in comparison to Thailand as well- people based in the USA don't need to fly to BKK to go to a tropical paradise, so outside of FT, where you would think everyone in the universe takes every vacation in Phuket and the Maldives flying first class, the vacation traffic is smaller- if it wasn't TG could fly an A380 nonstop LAX-BKK.
Also, the trade relationships between Europe and SE Asia (or Australia and SE Asia) are stronger than those of North America and SE Asia, for much the same reasons of geography (plus history).
The fact is no airline in the Americas flies to BKK nonstop. The airline hubbed in BKK doesn't even fly those routes nonstop. If UA is going to a strategy of "we're ditching the NRT hub" (and it's clear they are), flights to BKK have to stand and fall based on their potential as nonstops. And thanks to it being ULH, and BKK not being a top-tier market like HKG or SIN... they lose.
UA wants to get rid of the NRT hub, so does DL. Sic transit gloria mundi.