Previously Tom asked:
It's great to see some real data! But wouldn't the evening of the 5th and the morning of the 6th be more indicative of the demand for F to FL? Also -- the 10th is well outside the upgrade windows so won't really show demand for G seats.
Mark Replies:
Sorry it took me some time to get back to you Tom. I was able to check 80 flights from Hub cities to Florida on the 3rd of Jan for travel on the 5th. I found that out of the 80 flights I checked only 24 flights were showing 12 or more First Class seats booked. That is only 30% of the flights had more then 12 people booked in first class.
Let me give you one more example of how we can benefit from removing some of the first class seats on the 757's and dedicate them to leisure markets. I once again checked the PHL-MCO market for the 10th of Jan to get exact bookings as of today. What I found was out of 158 available first class seats on the non-stop flights, only 40 have been booked, for a 25% load factor, while coach was booked to 98% of capacity. Wouldn't it stand to reason that we should reduce the number of first class seats to more accurately align supply and demand? This would afford us the opportunity to generate additional revenue without increasing costs. I still think that dedicating the 757 fleet to doing strictly leisure markets, with the new seat configuration, is a very positive step.
Respectfully,
Mark
It's great to see some real data! But wouldn't the evening of the 5th and the morning of the 6th be more indicative of the demand for F to FL? Also -- the 10th is well outside the upgrade windows so won't really show demand for G seats.
Mark Replies:
Sorry it took me some time to get back to you Tom. I was able to check 80 flights from Hub cities to Florida on the 3rd of Jan for travel on the 5th. I found that out of the 80 flights I checked only 24 flights were showing 12 or more First Class seats booked. That is only 30% of the flights had more then 12 people booked in first class.
Let me give you one more example of how we can benefit from removing some of the first class seats on the 757's and dedicate them to leisure markets. I once again checked the PHL-MCO market for the 10th of Jan to get exact bookings as of today. What I found was out of 158 available first class seats on the non-stop flights, only 40 have been booked, for a 25% load factor, while coach was booked to 98% of capacity. Wouldn't it stand to reason that we should reduce the number of first class seats to more accurately align supply and demand? This would afford us the opportunity to generate additional revenue without increasing costs. I still think that dedicating the 757 fleet to doing strictly leisure markets, with the new seat configuration, is a very positive step.
Respectfully,
Mark
