SK left because they were losing money, not because they had an angled lie flat seat. People will go on a plane to BKK no matter what - it's popular. If those routes were profitable for LH and AF, they would be there. EK has angled lie flat seats on all their planes except the A380. That still is a lot of planes, and you see them in all european cities as well as BKK. Sorry, your "we are not competitive, so we won't fly there" doesn't hold water. If that were the case, then why would AF or LH fly to Singapore? Singapore has a better product and you also have the option of the middle east carriers. Doesn't work man. If those had been really good routes, you wouldn't have seen the issues.
TG loses tons of money. Fares are low to BKK.
What are you talking about, UA had no competition? Have you heard of JL? DL? EVA Air? China Airlines? Korean Air? Asiana? Check fares from LAX or JFK to BKK, and let me know the fares. Let me know who the cheapest ones. Fares are dirt cheap on USA-BKK because all of those carriers, particularly the Taiwanese ones, dump capacity and lower the fares tremendously, making it a dicey proposition. And I highly doubt that "many of them will never return to UA". Most of the pax were once-in-a-lifetime pax going to Thailand for their honeymoon or a backpacking trip. They'll all return to UA for their domestic travel or what not if the scheduling or timing is right.
Originally Posted by
EXLEFTSEAT
You don't get the gist of my posts. Carriers like SK, LH out of MUC and AF switched priorities not necessarily because the route was unprofitable, but because they were noncompetitive. SK doesn't even offer all lie flat C seats. TG still operates all these routes very successfully, some more than once a day, but now in competition to the Gulf carriers. TG's flights are full in F and C.
UA didn't have any Gulf carriers messing with them on the BKK route, nobody was threatening them, and their planes were always full. They have now taken 300 seats off that destination and pax have had to find alternatives. Many of them will never return to UA, not even on the leg to and from NRT. And some now book on the Gulf carriers
[Unduly personalized text edited by Moderator per FT Rule 12.]