Originally Posted by
percysmith
That's the problem - too few passengers and a route gets canned - exhibit 1 VS SYD-HKG
Actually I don't find SYD-HKG a very difficult redemption...there's enough business traffic to keep up frequencies but not fill the J cabin...
VS' main problem is that they don't have any transit traffic (unless from UK). Most are O&D. Also their planes are old and are behind QF and CX in this route.
Also given CX is strong hold at HKG, and can feed all the transit traffic from China and rest of Asia, CX can sustain many flights to Australia providing the frequencies that the business travellers need.
There are more and more Chinese migrating to Australia, which should help CX filling up those planes, as they need to go back to China for family visit etc. I didn't even count the Chinese tour groups at all as they would have travelled on CA/CZ/MU etc.