| Quoting Delta777Jet (Reply 48): I m sure the result will be that CO need to stop the service to EWR in worsest scenario. However my guess is, that there is enough space for two carriers serving the route. EK might fit well, because when DL was flying this route and the ATL one, there was not enough business pax supporting high revenues. I think its a good test field for them and once again they showing Lufthansa how they forgot about the other parts of germany except FRA and MUC !! Lufthansa bye bye ! |
While CO would of course much rather have the HAM-NYC market to itself, I don think that EK entering the market will cause CO to drop the route - CO has the benefit of the EWR hub and it seems that on flights from "Smaller European" cities to EWR there is a rather even mix of NYC-bound and connecting pax. EK will have to rely on O&D traffic exclusively.....plus the odd pax that is actually travelling from DXB to JFK on this flight (and that will be a small number with 2 nonstop flights per day offered.) The question is: will EK offer bargain fares to fill up the Y section of the 773 on this route, and is there enough traffic to keep the premium cabins anywhere near filled?
| Quoting Jfr (Reply 49): I'm guessing that a market like HAM has probably got great CARGO potential too. Maybe EK figures breakeven's less risky to/from such a big logistics hub. And there's much less cargo and passenger competition. It's a lot easier to take on a carpetbagger like CO than LH. |
This could be the answer to our question - why Hamburg? EK probably sees an opportunity moving cargo between the US and Hamburg, which is a big industrial center and a good trans-shipment center for intermodal cargo that transfers between air to sea/land transport.
I mentioned EK's Trans-Tasman services above, and I do agree that PART of the reason that EK flies its aircraft between Australia and New Zealand are the high ground fees as the Australian airports, but another consideration is cargo. EK does move a good amount of cargo in the bellies of its big widebody aircraft on those routes........and has benefitted from NZ and QF more and more using narrowbody aircraft on the Tasman routes. Maybe EK has the same idea for HAM-JFK......the 773ER has a huge cargo capacity that could be put to good use. (Of course, CO carries little cargo, if any, on its HAM-EWR 757 service......cargo capacity on the 757 is limited (expecially when compared to a 773ER), and due to range concerns when operating a 752 on a transatlantic segment, CO has weight and load restrictions to deal with.)
