Originally Posted by
BAeuro
BA don’t have this issue though. I’d say most European routes are profitable and those that need lower fares/lower costs are operated from LGW due to the cost savings.
User Dave_C claimed more-or-less the opposite a few posts up.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. The Euro carriers have brought profitability of short-haul up a bit. It's nowhere near the profitability of, say, US domestic. (Europe hasn't seen the kind of consolidation as the US, but that's another topic.)
Most likely, few of BA's short haul routes earn the ROI which IAG desires to attain overall. Short haul isn't the total cost center it used to be ten years ago anymore. Better load factors (until early this year) have contributed to that. But it's stil sort of a hybrid cost model. BA would have fewer short-haul routes if there wasn't that feeder aspect towards high-margin long-haul traffic.