eolesen said:
To be polite, you should stick to serving customers and being a safety professional. Network planning and analysis doesn't appear to be amongst your strengths.
It's a business, not a dream factory. No airline starts up routes just because it might be neat.... You can't invent demand for long-haul routes if it isn't already there.
Just US Airways: They would spend a shitload of money to apply for the route that doesn't exist, fight for years to try to get approval for that route authority (SPECIFICALLY A PHL-CHINA PAIRING), finally get the route, not have a plan (whatsoever) right thereafter, not have an aircraft that can fly the route for years thereafter, come up with excuses about the economy and fuel costs - when finally pressured to start the route that was awarded, and then be forced to give it back.
http://atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/II29Cb01.html
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-airways-drops-planned-philly-beijing-route-2009-10-28
Or they would, start CLT-HNL, (because of the prestige of east coast to Hawaii, since pretty much every major airline was doing it at one point), not dedicate a compatible aircraft and then drop the route, because it was a failure.
http://www.usairways.com/EN-US/SPECIALS/PROMOTIONS/CLT-HNL.HTML
Or wait, maybe it was because of this reason that they started CLT-HNL
Putting a plane to fly CLT-HNL, because you have nowhere else where to put the plane? Sure, why not? IT MIGHT EVEN MAKE IT!!!!! We could leave people behind, OR STOP IN PHX!!!!
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-airways-charlotte-to-honolulu-flight-might-just-work/
Granted that it requires a little bit of digging, I can tell you that I have seen the articles before - left and right, where major airlines, months after launching a route, found out the hard way, that they shouldn't have. Most of them did it just for the sake of prestige and making the whole thing - well - "the whole package airline, the global airline thing, the airline with the most non-stop flights to Europe, etc...."
AA's Budapest?
http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2012/02/american-airlines-to-drop-buda.html/
DL's MIA-LHR when there are already about 20 nonstops a day to LHR alone?
http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/delta-drops-heathrow-miami-route
I could go on and on and on... but, it's time to go to bed.