Originally Posted by
hayzel7773
But are these high yielding pax or the cheap O&D pax? Taiwanese people often fly based on price, they will even fly to HKG and then to TPE if the price is cheaper. Just because people fly it doesn't mean it will be profitable.
As others have posted, this behavior is not limited to the Taiwanese.
The ONT-TPE flight would be for people who hate to drive through LA to get to LAX - O is ONT and D can be anywhere in Asia or Australia/NZ where CI flies
I think CI will start with a good base of existing passengers living in that part of SoCal and hope to get some additional business from new customers who want the convenience. They can also redirect their shuttles to ONT. It will be interesting to see which time slot they use for the flight (i.e. focusing on TPE passengers or transit passengers).