Originally Posted by
MFLetou
I know most everybody on this forum enjoys bashing the current US Administration, but this smells more like EK finding a convenient excuse to retreat after over saturating markets, which is exactly what their US competitors have been saying all along.
I agree on the over-saturation and this giving EK an out. I am sure that the new rules contributes a bit, but so it goes.
Anecdotally, I have consistently heard of easy availability of rows of middle empty seats on the LAX EK flights for a few months now while I see full EY flights. The capacity of the EK flights and having the double daily has just been too much. Further, EK was not matching the ULH fares (which essentially would make the connecting flight at DXB 'free') and was asking for a premium. Passengers aren't biting just like they behave on domestic routes. A few years ago EK was more aggressively matching prices, but I think they had enough of flying people and not even covering costs (which has been the point of contention for quite some time). I mean, the price of tickets on these routes are the exact same as paid in 1987 (which means including inflation, etc. are at a significantly lower price today).
Originally Posted by
LonghornDXB
I am surprised about LAX though; it serves a huge area, including people in LAS and PHX
So, LAX is probably the only market outside of CHI-NYC-DC on the list that has *a lot* of other choices. Just to remind, the carriers include Saudi, Turkish, Etihad, Emirates, Qatar plus all of the Asian route carriers of Singapore, Thai, Malaysian, Cathay, Korean and probably a few others I've left off inadvertently.
I think it is good that you mention the feeder aspect of the southwest region. I am pretty confident though that almost none of that is going to Emirates. I think AA has codeshared very well onto the ULH flight to AUH as well as points beyond. SAN, PHX, LAS and so on are getting booked on AA/EY metal. Even with AS, I don't think EK it getting much benefit for the LAX feeder aspect.
Rasheed