eternaltransit

I did some more sums for you, iahphx and I can certainly see your point even if others have been rather, shall we say, dismissive!

Worst case scenario is a fuel cost of 280,000USD. If we go by EKs own report which states that fuel in 2013/14 was 39.2% of expenses, let's call that 40%. So total expenses per flight will be 700,000USD.

In the worst case, with the DoT figures showing an 80% load factor, say that is entirely in Y at the cheapest fares: that's 319 pax. That works out at total revenue for the flight, if we take the worst case (the cheapest ticket to BOM at 734 USD net to EK), of 234,146USD , which works out as a crashing loss of 465,854USD.

So yes, it is within the realms of possibility for EK to be eating massive losses on these routes - but only if quite specific criteria are met, that is:
- each plane is completely fuelled
- the only seats sold are the cheapest tickets

If that were the case, then I would certainly agree with you that "something fishy" would be going on.

However, distribute that 80% across all 3 cabins and you get: 11*20000 + 60*6750 + 319*734 which works out at a healthy: 220,000+405,000+234,146 = 859,146USD - enough to cover your costs and make some sustainable profit.

Of course you can vary the pricing - not everyone on an 80% load aircraft is going to be on the cheapest fares, as other posters have said, there is high J/F demand from stations. But it can be shown that these routes can be profitable: and I am even basing these numbers on inflated costs for EK - as jet fuel doesn't cost that much at the moment and planes aren't totally fuelled (unless it's totally full, which would automatically lead to profit) and there is cargo.