Originally Posted by
GRUflyer
But NZ has a far superior onboard service and a much better capilarity out of AKL than LA.
If one is flying to anywhere else other than SYD, NZ become appealing because you can fly straight from AKL to smaller destinations across NZ.
One just has to look at O&D traffic between New Zealand and both Chile and Brasil. According to Chile's CAB, in 2013 traffic between New Zealand and Chile reached 81,693 pax. Whereas O&D traffic between New Zealand and Brasil only reached 22,387 pax. Besides, most Brazilian pax using the route are traveling to/from Australia where LAN offers good connectivity due to the recent codeshare agreement with QF, (LAN also offers connections via AKL to certain destinations in Australia on QF metal):
http://www.lan.com/es_cl/sitio_perso...a-y-sudamerica
Originally Posted by
GRUflyer
And I really hope the LA management is not so stiff as you suggest. Or just because GRU is their hub to Europe, you believe they should cancel the SCL-MAD non-stop?
Do you think it makes sense for LAN to launch an ultra long-haul route such as GRU-AKL/SYD which would only serve to cannibalize existing traffic on the SCL-AKL/SYD route when the traffic simply is not there to justify such a route? Your reference about the MAD route does not make any sense since there is very strong O&D between Spain and both Chile and Brasil, (LAN will indeed deploy the 787-9 on the SCL-MAD-FRA route next October).