lolstebbo

IIRC they announced it as 4x and upped it to weekly before reservations opened.

rasheed

Saw the plane from outside at T2 (as anticipated). I would be interested in hearing about the process. Are they providing money vouchers to premium classes to use in the local concourse shops instead of a lounge? How is immigration and baggage going?

The radio ads for this flight (paid for by ONT local authority) are non-stop. That is good to see.

Saw this on the website as well: https://calec.china-airlines.com/JCD...y=us&locale=en
Funny that you have to connect to the Internet before the flight to get the promo code for in-flight use.

Rasheed

brabb12

They actually do have a lounge, its a very small lounge but it gets the job done. One area is for eating, the other for relaxing. I believe they used two stores and converted it into the lounge. I believe it is only being used for China Airlines, but they may consider to open it up more to other airlines in the future.

Photos are from me, and also taken from Cranky Flier



From the outside of the lounge area.


Entrance to the lounge area.


Right side room Eating area


Left side room, relaxing area

coolfish1103

At least they got a lounge set up, the food quality is probably comparable to what Korean Air offers in TBIT (which is abysmal).

The FIDS is so sad... only 7 flights in the afternoon departs from Terminal 2...

Wonder what happens if CI decides to move this to a night time flight. The terminal will have to be in operation all the way till midnight.

lolstebbo

If anything, it's probably like what the SFO lounge was like a few years ago (they've actually improved the food selections a little bit over the past 12 months, which was pretty surprising to me).

tris06

Of course it is low quality compared to Lounges like HK skyteam or CX hk lounges or some lounges out of LAX. Only 1 flight uses it for now. I am happy they would have one considering my expectation would have been low for an airport that flies only 4 million passengers and most of that is domestic.

Now if say in the next year or 2 a couple more airlines fly out of this airport internationaly. I could see CX and a China carrier putting an A350 on this route. Then I think we will see a larger and more well stocked lounge being opened and this one closed. Small steps , small steps.

The cargo issue could get eventually solved again if a couple more airlines flew to ONT. There would then become an incentive for a private company to set up the infrastructure to offer this service.

If that happened then ONT will be set to really challenge LAX for a decent share of the business.
Again this assumes upgrading the terminal is continously happening to handle the increases business.

rasheed

Great to see a lounge setup. I am not sure if this or a food voucher is better? In terms of late passenger operations, T4 does have the 1am AA flights on a couple of days each week. It doesn't help T2 staffing itself, but shouldn't be an issue.

Rasheed

Mama

I would take this flight out of ONT if it is cheaper than LAX, factoring ground transportation and cost of my time. Otherwise, I am not motivated. It is about the same distance for me to go to ONT or LAX.
LAX immigration control line has improved greatly and LAX has much better amenities.

coolfish1103

Rumor indicating this route to be suspended in October due to low loading, citing comments from FA and local travel agency to stop selling future tickets. Personally I feel CI just wants to get it done for Ed Royce and did not bother to plan anything. Afternoon, daily, 77W and similar pricing strategy to LAX all heading towards wrong direction for this route. It should have been Late night, 3-4 weekly and 359 plus cheaper ticket.

Loading for Premium Economy is 30%, Economy is 50%. Premium Business has little to no passengers on this route.

For March 2018 statistics, TPE-ONT served 3571/4654 = 76.7%, not a very good result given it's only few days with opening sales.

tris06

Wow. I agree. But always the issue was how to get the A350 on this route when it has been fully utilised on other long haul networks. To be honest nearly all of its long hual network would do well to convert to A350 as it is far more efficient and smaller capacity.
If those loading numbers are true. Wow there is no way that route will succeed. Shame for those in the US but well it also shows that the demand is not really there or it is hard for people to change their ways and are instead fixed to seeing LAX as the only place to fly out of.
True CI pricing was maybe an issue but such poor loads can't be just because of pricing and as well if people really care about pricing then CI can never beat MU or CZ or CA with their extremely aggressive pricing even out of LAX as many people wont place convenience of a flight that much. I personally hoped better for this route. Anyway lets see what happens. Summer loading's I would guess is the critical time to improve loadings and margins if it is going to keep going.
Any news about the London Gatwick route going from the FA? My parents just booked their business class flights from BNE to LGW for about 4600 AUD for later in the year. Be a shame if they pulled out of that market too.

HkCaGu

It only makes sense to serve ONT when traffic to/from LAX is bad. Currently most go east before evening rush toward ONT, and head west during the evening rush from ONT. Both are nicer drives compared to LAX.

coolfish1103

It's not just about avoiding traffic, the timing is also important. People work these earn enough in a day and if they can avoid taking a day off, they would. An evening departure allows them to head home, get the luggage and snack a bit or even have dinner before heading to airport. There is a reason why CAL use to operate CI 9 along with CI 5 cause CI 5 just don't fill enough passengers. Plus EVA is operate 2 late night flight.

A drive to LAX probably hits 1 hr max off peak time for inland empire residents, a bit more if we go further into Fontana or Riverside. It's still quite far for them to drive all the way, so ONT does have it's options. However, if you are pairing up with afternoon flight (taking a day off not just for the passengers but also the driver, not possible to get connecting passengers to SEA), priced about the same as the LAX flight (and it departs evening)... you aren't going to fill the plane daily (even CI 6/5 was not daily during off peak) plus operating with 77W.

If they want the flight to survive, they need transit passengers << and that means this needs to be a late departure flight cause you don't get any feeds from beyond ONT.

Nothing about LGW and I think that flight will survive. It's not daily (slowly adding frequency) and using 359 with some feeds from Australia.

tris06

I don't think the B777 are being fully utilised recently. So they could afford to hold the plane on the ground for another 4-6hrs to allow people to fly out late at night. Not sure what the cost of holding a plane on the ground would cost. But maybe ONT could also waive or give a low rate. I am sure negotiations are ongoing.

Well for any route being served long term service in itself creates business so loadings for any route would gradually increase year on year.
I think they should not move the flights from Gatwick as it does have some advantages. Heathrow would surely be also more expensive to fly into.

Also Heathrow has no Skyteam partner so connecting flights can be done from Gatwick if people really need to fly onwards. Plus I think AMS makes a much better airport (Due to KLM skyteam partner) to fly into and onward if someone wants to go to say Scotland or etc.

billsmithfromtexas

Haha Taiwan people rather take their money to the grave than spend it. I know this only too well. They will spend more money on their car than their house in Taiwan.

billsmithfromtexas

They made a real hash out of the LHR flights and were very heavily penalised for pulling the plug on that route.