Question about how airlines estimate demand
 

Don't really know where this post would go but... I was wondering where airlines gets their information for estimated demand on routes. Was just wondering what the demand currently is between New York and Valencia, Spain. Is there a specific company or online resource?

Thanks,

"Question about how airlines estimate demand"
History. Airlines are big on data collection and analysis.

Market analysis, historic data, economic data, etc.

Tons of data to factor in: Are customers willing to pay more to have a non-stop offer compared to current 1-stop connection are the? Are there tons of companies needing these flights and are willing to pay top dollar (Air France has for instance flights to parts of Africa that see plenty of oil and gas employees)? Etc.

Or you could just throw a dart at a map. I would imagine that's how QR ended up with a handful of destinations like Cardiff.

I'm sure you know that it's a lot more complicated than just ringing up some research company...

There are no direct flights between NYC and Valencia, so you need to crunch an enormous amount of data on connecting routes. Airlines have (access to) this information from a number of resources, including IATA, for whom I did a consulting project many years ago. Joe Public isn't going to get very far in analysing these data.

Airlines have their own big data and in house staff to analyze it.

It really depends on the market.

In some markets, the local government will do the data collection for you (via visitor bureau). Some may have chamber of commerce.

But regardless, the data availability actually reflects the potential demand because the data is what convinces airlines to make further research.

Thanks, Everybody