Quote:
Originally Posted by YYCguys
Is there any competition other than WS on that route currently? Surely some competition would be good on that route and surprised nobody wants to give it a go?
|
It's a nice sentiment, but it ain't going to happen.
As for competition, yes. Flair flies it (or at least will fly it, starting in September). It's a good fit for Flair.
Competition - i.e. traditional, mainline airline competition - will flock to high yield routes where there is lots of demand for premium product. That's why you'll see lots of airlines flying the same routes and competing for passengers in/out of places like LAX, NYC, and even YYZ.
LAS is notoriously low yield. High volume of passengers, but low margins. That might make it appealing for discounters and ULCCs -- that's their business. That makes it distinctly unappealing for traditional mainline carriers.
Air Canada "Rouged" everything in and out of LAS years ago. When they Rouged routes, they said that those routes were financially unviable for their traditional, mainline carrier operations.
From LAS, the big three U.S. carriers - UA, AA, DL - all only fly to their hubs. Nowhere else. None have chosen to break their operating model in order to link LAS directly with any other airport, but instead funnel pax through their hubs-and-spokes.
Think about the size of LAS, the number of flights, and the staggering volume of passengers. Yet no mainstream airline has made it a focus, and they only operate flights from there to/from their hubs. Even with all of those flights and passengers, there is no airline hubbed there. That's because of the economics of LAS traffic.
None of the big U.S. carriers are going to "give it a go" to compete on a route like this when (a) non-hub flights are totally inconsistent with how they run their operations and (b) the financials and super low yields of LAS would likely make it one of the least desirable places to be able to make a business case to circumvent their entire operating model.
So, yes, zero chance of UA operating YYC-LAS. I'd put it on par with Etihad starting to fly YYC-YWG.