Which CX Flight is the most Profitable???
 

Which CX flight is the most profitable???

-my guess is HKG-YVR, HKG-LHR, and maybe HKG-JFK

Why do you think HKG-YVR is the most profitable? Because the YVR based crew cost less? It certainly couldn't be from the fares -- lots of heavy discounting out of YVR.

Anyone who knows cannot reply on this thread, as the info is a trade secret. Cargo probably makes the difference between routes for profitability. My own guess is that HKG-SFO is more profitable due to the cargo into/out of Silicon Valley.

i always heard it was hkg-tpe - short sector - high frequency - high fares - high load factors on high capacity aircraft

Any 744 CX flight that is full is profitable.

I can't imagine HKG-YVR being among the most profitable as one of the two daily frequencies is a 2-class A340 with no F, the other frequency is a 747 that splits premium-cabin sales with the NYC market, and a lot of CX coach tix are sold at discounts through Vancouver bucket shops to the Asian community.

I would guess HKG-SFO, HKG-NRT, perhaps HKG-SIN/BKK/TPE where they can hit businesspeople hard for short turnaround riding in the front cabins.

SIN and BKK are indeed good ones, but have been offered recently at very low fares in Y (some below 1000 HKD!), so my guess would be NRT or TPE.

Thought it was HKG - TPE as well given the high frequency and large number of passengers. Everyone who wants to go between the two countries have to transit through HK or Macau and it's been a great, steady business for years. Remember reading some research to say CX stand to lose a lot of its profits if direct flights between China and Taiwan is allowed.

my guess would be HKG-TPE and HKG-LHR.. maybe also HKG-NRT

FYI, CX discounts in almost all of the markets it flies to. Sometimes even on the web. Check out those webfares in F/J out of Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy etc.

They discount out of Australia and the UK too (you just need to know where to look). You can get F from LHR to SYD for only about GBP 4200 from certain agents in LHR.

The only places where they probably don't discount is ex-HKG and ex-USA (at least the premium cabins).

Everyone is listing routes, while the question asks for flights. Assuming that we're talking about routes, I would have to imagine that LAX-HKG is up there too. It's currently a monopoly route, is 3x daily and possibly going 4x, and its loaded to the gills with cargo and lots of J/F passengers.

One would have to add to this question;

---Most profitable route per pax!--- This because a route might be the most profitable, but if you have to fly it 10x a day, it also brings lots of cost.
My reason for suggesting NRT was that it only gets 4 flights a day and it is quite a short flight. Fares in HKG and Japan are quite high.

What makes you believe LAX is possibly getting a 4th flight? The third flight (CX885) is having a hell of a time filling up and selling seats. My brother (a TA) checks on the availability (on sabre) of these flights regularly and during the peak summer period (Mid June - Mid July), CX885 never came close to being sold out. During an extended period earlier, this flight was only 40% filled in capacity. If CX plans to do anything with the status quo of the LAX market, it will more likely be to reduce frequency as oppose to increasing it.

I still stand by my belief that increasing LAX to 3x daily is one of the dumbest move and they are suffering for it when one looks at the loads of the 3rd flight.

I was also surprised when CX announced 3X daily for HKG-LAX but I guess there maybe pressure from other OW members like AA and LA. Of course I could be wrong.

For the most profitable route I also think it's HKG-TPE. I have travelled frequently on this route and to me it's just like bus service - packed for most of the flights and it runs every hour (or less). Plus, cabin crew have to do several turn-arounds.

HKG-TPE-HKG would be one of the most profitable.

HKG-BKK/SIN would be operating at a loss due to the competition of the low cost carriers of which CX has had to match its fares to them.

I've been told that CX is quite happy to have a light pax load on the 3rd flight as it allows overbooking on the more popular flight times plus provides cargo lift -- and the cargo more than covers the cost of operating the flight. Maybe when they buy more freighters the cargo value will be less, but for now it seems to be a smart arrangement and not a dumb move at all. Just goes to show that running an airline requires a lot of calculations.