Is International First Class Profitable?
Jan 28, 2014 | 7:12 am
#31
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MEL
Programs: DL, QF, QR Silver, Bonvoy Lifetime Gold
Posts: 7,315
Good point, sbm12. There seems to be a new trend: Fist, Business, Economy --> Business, Economy Good (Economy Plus, Economy Comfort, etc), Economy Bad (Economy Discomfort, Economy Minus, Voyager, etc)
Jan 28, 2014 | 9:57 am
#32
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: NAP
Programs: LH, BA, TK
Posts: 2,410
The cost of a F cabin is part of larger investments in staff training, dedicated lounges, ground service contractors, bonus miles credits and I suspect many more. Little wonder if most airlines cannot manage to make it work, besides very few top players, whose profitability I would not swear about.
Jan 28, 2014 | 12:37 pm
#33
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Washington, DC, USA
Programs: UA MM, MB LifeTit
Posts: 1,866
If Int'l First is profitable enough for certain routes, then an airline will want a fleet that can always provide Int'l First for those routes, which means that they will have extra planes with the First Class cabin. On any given day, some of those planes will be flying routes where Int'l First is not profitable. I think that an airline like United might retain a certain number of three-class planes even if they cut back on Int'l First overall so they can continue to milk the routes where Int'l First pays and cut their losses on others.