Originally Posted by
bzcat
It's crazy that BR managed to maintain 90% load factor on TPE-SEA. That shows much strength in its Southeast Asia network funneling into TPE.
The drop in load factor at LAX and SFO is much more clear now and I think fair to say there is probably significant movement of people switching to SEA as transit point from other US gateways. I guess if you had to do 1-stop or 2-stops, it doesn't really matter that much if you are doing it via SEA or SFO/LAX. Whichever is cheapest is the way to go.
DL economy must be nearly empty... great sky peso redemption option to Asia
I noticed BR tends to sell SEA flights as connections, due to the strength of Alaska's SEA hub and lack of true UA partnership. For example, if you want to book DFW-TPE on EVA's website, it actually prefers selling you Alaska interline rather than a shorter UA connection via IAH. The primary source of UA connections comes from the UA ferrying pax from DFW to SFO, even though UA directly competes out of SFO. On the other hand, UA will sell you IAH connections on their website, but at a very marked up price to disincentivize people flying BR instead of UA metal out of SFO. UA and BR have a very bizarre relationship.
That being said, BR is looking to launch various other cities like DFW, I wonder how that will cut into the SEA market share.