<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by crazy canuck:
A prime example of this in Canada is a company called WestJet that is pulling amazing growth numbers and service responses from customers as a "discount airline", and Air Canada, the established contender is on the verge of bankruptcy. Let me say that as an AC flyer they have never treated me poorly, but could they be more efficient? YES. Westjet has taken Air Canada to task @ their own game.</font>
But one fundamental difference that I think is being overlooked in your example is that Westjet is accomplishing all of this on its own, with its own investment in assets, marketing, resources, etc. It is not succeeding by piggybacking on AC's flagship plane (if they were to have one. ;-) ).
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by crazy canuck:
Before everyone says that running a discount airline is NOT the same as flying SST's, well Running record companies and flying planes are arguably MORE different--and Branson's has succeeded at these.</font>
But if we were just talking about planes, I'd agree with you. But we're talking about a specific plane that has been glamorized, and even anthropomorphized over time among the general public. As such there is a significant inherent competitive advantage given to whomever flies her.
And to restate what
LondonElite said above, I really believe that the loads just simply weren't there. I've heard from a few sources that before AF pulled out, BA was perfectly happy to run it at a loss for a while because of the value it brought to the brand. But the reality was that the demand was falling for supersonic service, even among those who were the most frequent users. Especially in the wake of many American corporate scandals and misappropriations, the true cost of a Concorde ticket must have been a much harder sell in recent times.