Originally Posted by
PLeblond
I suspect that example is an outlier. I know a lot of people who fly the "Airbus Commute" special and J & PY are often full. Some days they aren't. Unless the fluctuations are predictable (like hotels near TLS where there is a more than 100 Euro Delta between weekdays and weekends, they need to keep the corporate folks at Airbus happy...
I agree it was likely an outlier (due to it being a holiday), but I suspect the demand is still not strong enough to satisfied putting a widebody on this route (hence it's one of the route getting the XLR first).
There are going to be a lot of up gauging and down gauging across the network, while it's not a true MoM (if there's such a demand for MoM planes is still debatable) aircraft nor it is a direct 757 replacement (98%?).
It's a very versatile plane to be put on basically any domestic routes before and after a transatlantic crossing to maximise utilisation. I suspect we will see the XLR on routes across AC's network both short haul and transcon.
Originally Posted by
YOWgary
Or just use those pod-equipped XLRs to fly domestic routes.
It doesn't address the lack of premium seats supply, but I would expect them to increase the ticket price on XLR operated flight to balance out the demand.