global happy traveller

Just got an alert from existing booking about SKCH.
Looks like in December service will be reduced from daily to 5 days a week.

No Thursday & Saturday from YYZ
No Wednesday & Friday from TPE

hayzel7773

It is a downgauge for the month of Nov. and the 1st week of Dec. Rest of Dec. remains daily.

global happy traveller

thx!

Clipper801

It looks like the cut is "permanent". Just checking for availability in March 2019. Frequency is reduced to 5 flights per week.

username

Interesting we debated the success of this route before it started. Then it went to Daily. Now it is being reduced. I wonder where all the extra capacity will go with Mainland expansion also on hold.

hayzel7773

Service is being reduced based on demand/season. It is daily until mid-Feb., where it turns to 5x/week. The daily flight returns in May.

However, we are a year out. Changes are still possible.

Clipper801

There should be plenty of connecting passengers ex-TPE to other Asian destinations (e.g., HKG, SIN, BKK) plus those terminating in Taiwan to fill the plane even on a daily frequency.

global happy traveller

I think the competition has started to take a bite?
Recently found $500-800 fares via the US to TPE/SIN during the slow season. But they are not as convenient.

Agree, slow season are Fall, Winter excluding Christmas-New Years and CNY.

Clipper801

Possible but a direct non-stop always has its attractiveness and the easy connection ex-TPE to many Asian destinations should make this flight viable if priced competitively. Some like the midnight departure time, some don't.
If I am flying to HKG from YYZ, BR will not be my first choice since its fares are most of the time more or less the same as AC and CX but requiring a connection at TPE. There has to be some incentives for me to fly an airline without a daily frequency on a non-direct itinerary vs. another airline with daily frequency plus direct non-stop. It means that I am less flexible with my itinerary as I shall be restricted to certain days of the week that have flights operating.
Not having a flight ex-YYZ on Saturday is really dumb. This has to be one of the most popular departure days of the week. Both AC and CX charge a premium.

hayzel7773

There is more than load factor when it comes to deciding freq. A big part is the yield of the pax, and with YYZ being a bunch of cheap cattle tickets, it simply isn't worth the extra freq. when they can just fill less freq. with more pax. Keep in mind they are keeping the busy seasons daily, just the low seasons 5x/week.

Clipper801

On what basis did you make that statement? Please cite source. Thank you.

hayzel7773

Internal data of all routes shows that YYZ is not yielding well(LF is pretty good). YYZ/YVR/JFK/ORD are V/W/S/Q/P ticket haven and most times, rev mgmt. has to move more seats(than they would like) out of higher categories back down because of low booking trends for the higher tickets(and yield pressure from competitors). RL is not performing well on the route(poor yields outside of holiday seasons with poor load factors).

BR's main promise this year to shareholders(greatly emphasized at shareholder meetings) was to control and hopefully increase yield. They've been doing this pretty well by adjusting frequency on lots of routes(IAH and ORD are key examples), slicing costs in administrative roles, cutting staffing(NA West Coast down to 3 pilots/Everything else is the same/FA on 77A no longer being assigned two extra/77M staffing now based on load factor/increasing reserve shifts), and not hiring disabled people(even though a quota is required).

global happy traveller

Be honest, not surprised and consistent with my observations of the demographics

24left

I'm one of those who much prefers the overnight departures on BR and CX. I get why others like the 10am on AC to HKG or the cnx in YVR. I do all of them.

On a recent AC flight on one of the HKG routes, crew said that AC is not making money. Not sure where this person got their info and on which metrics "not making money" is based. I'm quite sure AC makes some money on cargo. However, that massive Y cabin is not paying much (relative to distance) and I would expect the same is true on CX and BR.

Also, up until last year, in my experience, BR business was always priced less on the YYZ route than AC or CX (for destinations such as HKG and SIN). Now, on most days, they are higher than AC.

AC spent the better part of Q1 selling low fares YYZ-YVR-TPE in Premium Economy for months and also in business for quite a while. I wonder if any of that had an impact.

As for cheap Canadians, well, it is true and it's not just an ethnic thing (more than one group in fact). Had a chat with someone from LH back in 2015, who was quite clear that the reason they were cancelling F service to/from Canada was that "Canadians are cheap and don't want to pay for F". Well who does, really? I'm quite sure there are the same boatload of pax from UA and elsewhere who use their miles for F where they can. We all know that many airlines that had F are not including it on some of the new aircraft they buy.

Since I don't work in revenue management, I am not sure where that fine line is between fares, frequency, and cutting onboard services. Airlines pay a price when they do that in the premium cabins - unless they think their customer is in a captive market and has no other choice.

Taggart

My wife and I fly to BKK from YYZ in PE averaging a trip once every year or two. We used to fly with CX, but for the last few years, their fares aren't anywhere near as competitive as with BR, so we've been flying with the latter airline for the last few years. We're not just talking about a few hundred $'s difference but more like a $1000 CAD or more price difference. We find the service on BR just as good as with CX, and we've always preferred to land in BKK in the morning, rather than in the evening with the AC/partner airline route. Connecting time in TPE is usually only around three hours. We also prefer to fly non-stop to East Asia as well and are willing to pay up for it and have been doing it this way since the late 80's. We miss Thai Airways though when they used to fly to and from YYZ what seems many years ago. Had one of the best cabin experiences at the time, and that was only in economy. Anyway, back to the present where we hope BR continues to do what they are doing from YYZ, because they are doing it well. One thing we've noticed is that the seats in PE start filling up very fast, even when you book around five to six months in advance as we do and we've normally found the flights in the past pretty full.