Originally Posted by
rankourabu
Wait, werent we assured in the "riled up" thread by AC defenders that there is zero o/d traffic on YYZ-DXB anyway
But yes, if one was flying YYZ-DXB, and all other things being equal (schedule, etc, but especially price) - apart from some AC diehards or super elites - who in their right mind would fly AC over EK, especially up front?
You don't grasp. EK isn't going to be lowering prices. Their flights, as they have indicated in why they want more landing rights, are full and have been for years. Granted this naturally means the Yield is good. AC adding capacity on their off days, is not going to dent their bookings.
But it also makes it impossible to push AC out of the way.
Why? Because as AC has shown us time and time again, if you are going to "smash" someone you have to add buckets of capacity to the route and make everyone loose buckets of money. Thats what they did to Jetsgo, Canadian, Canjet, Harmony... Even WS discontinued destinations when it was a young Airline because AC decided it needed to predate it... Air Canada is a good predator, its built into the corporate culture.
Anyway in order to "smash" AC on the route EK would need to add double daily A380s which they can't do and never will be able to do because they will never get the landing rights...
Like clouds below pointed out - AS and well everyone got a pretty bad smashing on YVR LAX. AC went from under 400 one way seats a day to about 530ish, then turned around and announced for next summer they're going to 650... (4 X daily 1 767...) Transat has stated they've hurt them... Unlike when AC was predatory in the past, its profitable now, which makes it particularly dangerous.
The ULCCs who may or may not start can expect a swift and almost certainly lethal response out of Air Canada.