Originally Posted by
Mimi Imferst
Funny you should mention this as it seems AV has been planning to open this route, BOG-MCO. There is some question now whether or not they will attempt. Guessing the answer is no.
MCO is the 7th largest destination from Colombia to the US. Colombia has been on the hot 10 lists for travel this year(current situation notwithstanding). Not to mention the demand that lower fares may be able to bring. This number of 50/pax a day for O/D should be alot higher when the numbers come out next year. Jury is still out on how well Jetblue does with bringing connectors from the Northeast as this will mean the difference between profit and loss. I think Jetblue will be able to price quite well against DL and CO directs from NYC. We'll see.
As I said before AV flys into JFK, LAX, MIA & FLL all are not due to tourism but due to Biz. MCO would be a pure leisure mkt. IMO it doesnt make sense even for AV to fly into MCO when a 4-5 hr drive can be done via FLL or MIA.
CTG is a leisure mkt as well, its the same even worse humidity then MIA, been there enjoyed the Old City, might go again some day but I dont see NK fillin up its flight unless its a once a week flight and even then they will need Luck as well. AV serves CTG via BOG, not much in the way of Biz traffic.
I dont know the stats on Columbian traffic, nor from where you got yours. But most Columbians I believe dont have the funds to fly around. Lower fares arent gonna get people who have no extra $$$ to start to fly and for most probably for their 1st time ever. If they do they will probably go with their HomeTown Carrier AV for comfort sake.
I do believe that NK with CTG and B6 with BOG out of MCO will both stop these flights way before they lose too much $$$$. Im not sure how NK with FLL-BOG will play out either. DL out of JFK and CO out of IAH have much better chances of succeeding as they should be able to draw the Biz people who will pay for the Biz seat as well as some Cargo biz to boot. I dont think B6 will find much in the way of Cargo to MCO.
where B6 might have been able to do some good biz would have been to Central Am but Taca/Lacsa has that locked up and is a LCC. BTW Taca serves MIA with a stop from BOG or JFK for that matter.
I think B6 should stick to finding good City pairs here in the US and stay out of the Intl mkt.
As for The NE the main place is NYC and CO serves BOG n/s from EWR and DL will out of JFK and AV serves it out of JFK and AA serves it via MIA. I just dont see B6 getting that much out of NYC to fill its planes