Originally Posted by
DYKWIA
You seem to think the traffic is all about Americans flying to DXB. Do you realise there are countries outside the US? These flights will be full of Indian IT workers heading home for family visits.
But, that is what we see ex-USA as well. All of my EK flights from the US have been packed with Indian's going to India. These EK planes aren't filled with US businessmen going to DXB (except for me), they are filled with Indian businessmen/IT/engineers going to India via DXB. So, yes, most ex-USA traffic is also transit traffic.
Originally Posted by
eternaltransit
At the risk of beating many dead horses, a full house A380 to the USA is going to have (14*10000+76*3750+399*350 - cheapest rt fares divided by two) - c. 560k USD in pax revenue. Cargo revenue hasn't been factored in. No revenue manager who wants to keep their job is going to sell 100% cheap fares. So, more realistic pax revenue would be: (14*12000+76*6000+399*800) = 943k USD. More than enough to pay for the fuel. Sure, the profits aren't stellar, but they work. Oh. Add cargo.
Fares ex-USA to DXB range from:
Y: 1298-8099
J: 3720-18764
F: 21386-29896
So divide by two:
Y: 649-4049.50
J: 1860-9382
F: 10693-14948
No question if EK was selling O/D they would be making a killing, but I would say over 75% of the flights ex-USA are not O/D. And, with the extremely cheap flights from USA-India, there is very little profit, if any, to be had. 2 years ago I flew SFO-DXB-ICN, round-trip for US$800, for sure they lost money on me. The fares to India are often sub-$1k.
I have heard before, from a reputable source, that EK doesn't make money with their economy cabins, they make their money with their premium cabins. This is quite the opposite of most other airlines. But, when running the numbers it makes sense. If they can use their economy cabins to cover, or nearly cover, their costs, then the premium cabin revenue is where their profit comes from (and perhaps cargo, too). This is likely why EK focuses on their premium-cabin customer's experience, if people are going to drop $5k - $20k on a ticket, put together a product to attract those people. I would venture a guess that Emirates has one of the highest percentage of premium cabins being filled with people paying real money for them, vs. other airlines where the premium cabins are filled with awards, upgrades, or below-market-priced corporate contracts.