RyanairGuru wrote:qf002 wrote:SeaEagle8 wrote:Wow. That’s a huge hit. Not surprised about IAH but to reduce SYD-LAX to only 3 weekly seems really low. Very uncompetitive against QF, DL, VA, AA.
Yes, very surprised that they would cut so deeply. Not sure SYD is a market where you can get away with huge seasonal fluctuations like this but I’m sure they know what they are doing.
Also interesting that this comes after a huge marketing push by UA in Sydney over the last 6 months. Good that they tried but clearly didn’t work.
I wouldn't say that it didn't work per se, United will still have more capacity to Australia next year than they do now, but with yields as depressed as they are now taking 1< line of 787 flying and sending that to Europe during the northern summer will definitely make them more money.
Recall the discussion about AA wanting to launch seasonal 787 flights to Australia if the JBA was approved in the northern winter which is peak season to Australia but TATL traffic is way down. United is just doing the same IMHO. With fares at historic lows the opportunity cost of not redeploying that capacity in northern summer has become too great, but in northern winter Australia traffic increases and Europe yields go through the floor.
Not surprised they are cutting back, as they seem to have been over optimistic.
The SYD-LAX cut back is surprising to me. That's been the main South Pacific route for nearly 70 years (for UA and PA beforehand), considering they (and PA) had a duopoly with QF for most of that time, it's poor they can't defend market share effectively considering they're so established. Difficult to seem them surviving on that route with such low frequency.
Having said that their strategy seems to be boosting SFO with new routes/ greater frequency and not LAX, so maybe not surprising after all.