Originally Posted by
coolfish1103
Yeah, I don't think they are very interested to be on the top either... It's just a wish =) The VIP comment is funny... but I wonder how long will CI be able to take on the passengers from Vietnam once Vietnam Air has it's own direct route? Taiwanese are some what reluctant to spend lots of $ in Business Class, yet has a better rate than the VIP countries you have mentioned...
It is realized that BR is CI's main competitor, but if CI has a good product, most people might consider transit through TPE just for the comfort of the flight... which may be able to take away some of TG and SQ's Australia customers away from them by making TPE as the hub for flying to North America or Asia.
In addition, there might a possibility that there will be direct flights from mainland China to Taiwan, which will make TPE a better hub than HKG (not as good as NRT) anyday if traveling from the East to the West.
When VN introduces its own direct flight to US, it will affect CI and BR for sure. The question is how many direct flights VN should introduce to beat CI and BR.
CI hardly uses only four weekly SYD flights and three weekly BNE flights to fight with TG and SQ, even CX. The truth is these carriers not only carry passengers from Australia to North America but to Europe. That's the reason they can have such high frequency. CI does not have enough Europe flights to support its Australia flights, and from what I know is CI still mainly targets "tour groups" to and from SYD/BNE.
Direct flights between Taiwan and China "may" have a chance to make TPE as a hub traveling to west. BUT, I think it may just focus on passengers to and from southern China. At the same times, it also shows some concerns! If business travelers can fly to and from North America through Beijing and/or Shanghai directly, why bother through Taiwan? Besides, can CI provide such high density flights to beat CX? If passengers from southern China can have more convenient connection, they may still go through HKG. When CX introduces 77W to its most North America flights, CX can add more frequency than now. Think about JFK flights as an example (CX: three daily flights, two non-stop and one one-stop; CI: four weekly one-stop flights).