Originally Posted by Threy
SPM made a brilliant point, once the competition flies the A 380 on certain routes, you have to follow, cause they will lower the fares so massively, that either you pull out of the market or you buy the A 380 or come up with something revolutionary...
Generally revenue per seat mile will continue to fall, so operating the most efficient airplane on the most efficient way of operating ( which is still hub and spoke ) is key to success in the future.
I am not disagreeing but rather I am posting two issues to consider here....
I heard the same argument about the Concord before ( yes I am old enough to remember when it was launched). BA and AF would force the competitions to fly Concord because people want to spend less time in the air.... well we all know what had happened; however, I may comparing apple with orange here.
As regarding the lower fare with A380... that is assuming the plane is almost full, if it is not, there is no point talking about lower fare. In the event of economic downturn, the plane can be half empty, and the cost would not be absorbed by the 50% load. Didn't CX decided to park the planes during the SARs instead of having them in service because it would save them more if the planes were not flying.