Originally Posted by
UA_Flyer
I read somewhere that route is payload restricted but I cannot seem to find the source online anymore.
For what its worth …
Flying from China to the US East Coast avoiding Russian airspace is long, well above any plane's sweet spot for fuel consumption. So it can be done as you noted with restricted payload, but I don't see UA or any US airline who are all short on WB aircraft choosing to fly any route that is suboptimal economically.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Indeed, there was once a big push to restore China flights from the east coast and ORD, and add more flights from SFO, but demand is no longer there, so if anything the current capacity may be reduced. What I am trying to reconcile is with the bottom dropping out of China demand, why are Asia fares still so elevated?
From what I see new investment and additional manufacturing are being pushed to other countries. Chinese student enrolment in the US is down. The RMB is weak making the US much more expensive. With so much negative publicity on the US from the Chinese media (all state controlled) the US just isn't a country people aspire to travel to. The current demand is from people who need to travel between the two countries and are less price sensitive. My guesses.
Originally Posted by
eng3
It's a good connection point to maximize time in J if you are going anywhere in SE Asia.
Before COVID, HKG was a pretty easy upgrade to find. The only other option was SIN but that upgrade is impossible and you waste time flying to SFO/LAX if you are based on the east coast.
Back in December Nocella said something which has really stuck in my mind. He was talking about selling planes out 100% and said that completely full flights would no longer be an objective for UA. He first said it as an explanation in why UA had trouble recovering from irops last year, when every flight to everywhere is full cancellations make operations a total mess. But later he also said that UA was no longer interested in selling every seat at low prices because this had been causing them to offer cheaper tickets to people who were willing to pay more. By changing their pricing model they were increasing the revenue they generated on a flight even though there were some empty seats.
So I think the days of selling every single seat on a flight are gone for now with the result of somewhat higher prices.
There have also been several public comments by UA recently that the amount of China flying is about right for current demand. If UA is not chomping at the bit for increased flights I doubt DL or AA would be. So for now, I don't expect an increase. Over time, yes, but not immediately.