Originally Posted by
ashill
I don't think it really is, since LHR is a (joint venture) hub. DL operates flights from joint venture hubs to several non-hubs at least part of the year, including CDG-PIT, CDG-ORD, CDG-SEA (long before SEA was a DL hub). DL has shown more willingness to be creative with operations of TATL flights with their joint venture partners than UA and AA have for a long time. If it makes sense for DL/VS to fly LHR-PHL (which it does; PHL is a major market) but the best airplane for the market is a 757, it makes sense for DL to operate it (since VS has no airplane as small as a 757).
Of course, PHL has the added peculiarity that it's a LHR slot that can only be used for PHL for six seasons, but the flight isn't really an relic. If anything, it's a harbinger of the new era: joint venture hubs are hubs.
I'll give you Chicago now but that's also a huge market, the third largest in the country - considerably bigger than PHL. Connecting LHR to PHL makes sense but it's an AA city on the U.S. side and a BA hub on the UK side. That's a OneWorld route if there ever was one and there's bound to be a legion of AA/BA elites now on both sides of the Atlantic.
I don't know if I buy LHR as a VS hub. A hub needs spokes - VS has no spokes. VS flies out of LHR but it's not really counting on connecting traffic. VS is mostly a "Brits Abroad" airline for vacationers and flies from LHR to collect the mass of the population living in Greater London and the Home Counties. To have connecting feed here you probably need feed from the Philly end and there's nothing. So really this route is counting on Brits flying to Philly on vacation and SE PA people who want to go to London and aren't going with AA/BA to get status i.e. mostly leisure travelers. Is that viable yield?