Originally Posted by
TravellingChris
I appreciate the Pearson gold heist joke.
But doesn't AC run other services which are primarily tourist-oriented? Lima and Cartagena come to mind, for example.
Africa has always seemed like a major hole in AC's network. It doesn't do Lagos, Accra, Dakar even though there is two-way demand on all three of these. Instead AC simply duplicates what Royal Air Maroc is already doing in terms of Canada-Casablanca. (AC has a poor record when going up against dominant local carriers at their hubs--see Turkish at IST and Copa at PTY). Cape Town would have no competition and South Africa is a well-known and popular destination, so AC wouldn't have to stimulate demand.
ULH routes are very costly to operate compared to a TATL route (extra crew, crew layover, block time, the extra fuel required to carry the fuel, etc.) and leisure travels are more price sensitive than business travels, they can't demand a significant premium over other competitions with connection for the convenience. Not saying it's impossible, but it's an uphill battle.