I was surfing in another FF forum's discussion boards and I came upon a very interesting question. What are the 10 most PROFITABLE airline routes in the world? There were a number of consensus routes such as LHR-JFK because of the sheer number or daily offerings, but I wonder if LHR-JFK is really one of the most PROFITABLE routes for an airline. I don't have any expertise in route revenue management, but perhaps high frequency routes such as LHR-JFK, LAX-SFO, the east coast shuttle operations etc. have the most frequencies not because it is a very profitable route but because there is passenger demand for it and airlines can't afford to not serve the route due to competitive reasons (ie if AA doesn't offer the flight, the passenger will just go across the terminals to DL etc.) I would think that routes where an an airline doesn't really have competition would be more profitable.

The discussion on the other forum didn't define what profitable meant, but perhaps profit as a percentage of revenue? Largest amount of overall net profit? I guess there is an issue of does an airline want 90% profit margins but on a very small revenue route, or lower profit margins on a very high # of seats route?

Thoughts?