Elias, this is very insightful research, and a great thread at that. You mentioned airlines such as Lufthansa, Alitalia, Air France, etc. pulling out of Australia due to ‘low demand.’ One Euro airline pulling out of Australia that still baffles me to this day is Olympic. Surely they did not pull out due to low demand. As I’ve mentioned on several other occassions in this forum, the first choice for Greeks in Australia flying back to the homeland was Olympic. When all those seats were booked, then they would book on the ‘better’ airlines such as Singapore, Emirates, and Thai. Demand was clearly not a problem here, unless you know something that I do not. For over 20 years this route was operated by the 742. For the last 2 or so years of operation, more fuel efficient, albeit less capacity, A343’s were used. A few months ago, OA signed an agreement with GulfAir and now funnel their pax onho their flights, with one additional stop in Bahrain. This is great and all, but I have several questions perhaps you can provide some insight on:
1) Why did they pull out of the market if load factors were high?
2) Was is more profitable to operate a 742 with say 420 seats in a 2 class configuration or more a fuel efficient 343 with say 280 seats in a 2 class configuration?
3) Would an airline discontinue a route if it was profitable?
I thank you in advance for your insight.
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