Originally Posted by
coolfish1103
I don't think this market will sustain without undercutting. If DL needs to price Economy at $750 and promote Business at 110,000 miles (or less for Amex holders) during off peak periods and they can only get 50-60%, they are not making money. We are looking at Sep, Oct, Nov, Jan (non CNY periods), Feb, Mar, Apr being non-peak months, I would say they are breaking even at best since they don't even do much cargo business on the belly. A few less seats on DL won't matter on the overall loads. JX is adding 4 weekly from March and BR is continuing BR 24/23 throughout the entire year.
JFK loads went down because of payload restrictions during winter.
Loads aren’t the only gauge of success though, shifting from 57 premium seats to 80 premium seats is a pretty big shift. It’s well known that economy loads are far less important than filling up the cabin up front. Increasing premium seats by 40% is far more relevant. Yields matter much more than loads.
Also the TPE route is generating traffic domestically for Delta. UA has many low load factor routes across the Pacific like KIX/PEK. Airlines aren’t selling individual routes, but whole entire networks.