These tricks do not translate well to long-haul travel. Sweating costly assets is harder on a ten-hour journey crossing several time zones than when darting around a region with fast turnaround times. That makes it difficult to schedule flights to take off and land at those odder, cheaper times. And exhausted crew must be accommodated in hotels rather than being immediately rostered back to their own beds at the end of the day.
這些花招并不能很好地適用于長途旅行。在跨越多個時區的10個小時的旅程中,耗費昂貴的資產比在周轉時間快的地區穿梭更困難。這使得航班很難被安排在那些奇怪又便宜的時間起飛和降落。精疲力竭的工作人員必須住進酒店,而不是在一天結束后立即被安排他們回到自己的床上。
JetBlue thinks it can overcome these obstacles. In contrast to Norse Atlantic, a new carrier that thinks it can make better use of the wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliner, 15 of which it is now leasing, the American airline is using a new breed of aircraft, the Airbus A321LR. This is a long-range version of the European planemaker’s single-aisle short-haul workhorse. These are cheaper than wide-body jets. They are also smaller, and so easier to fill.
捷藍航空認為它可以克服這些障礙。新成立的北大西洋航空公司認為自己可以更好地利用寬體波音787夢幻客機(其中15架目前是租賃來的),相比之下,捷藍這家美國航空公司使用的是一種新型飛機——空客A321LR。這是歐洲飛機制造商的單通道短途主力機型的遠程版本。這些飛機比寬體噴氣式飛機更便宜。它們的體積也更小,因此更容易填滿。
And JetBlue has another card to play. The standard business of long-haul flying makes competing on price difficult. Full-service airlines rely on selling lucrative business-class seats at the front of the plane for the bulk of their revenues and profits. As a result, they can afford to sell economy seats relatively cheaply. Unlike most earlier low-cost efforts, JetBlue’s planes will include 24 business seats which should plump up margins. To attract business passengers it has steered clear of remote airports that executives dislike and picked up slots at Heathrow freed up by pandemic flight cuts.
捷藍航空還有另一張牌要打。長途飛行的標準業務使價格競爭變得困難。提供全方位服務的航空公司的大部分收入和利潤,都依賴于出售利潤豐厚的位于飛機前部商務艙座位。因此,他們能夠以相對低廉的價格出售經濟艙座位。與大多數早先為降低成本所做的努力不同,捷藍航空的飛機將配備24個商務艙座位,這將會提高利潤率。為了吸引商務旅客,公司避開了高管不喜歡的偏遠機場,選擇了希思羅機場因疫情航班削減而騰出的空位。
JetBlue plans a further service to London Gatwick starting in September and from Boston to London next summer. Norse intends to fly between several European and American destinations. But full-service carriers will not take the challenge on their most lucrative routes lying down. American carriers succeeded in lobbying their domestic regulators to slow Norwegian’s expansion. Incumbents including IAG, owner of British Airways, have launched their own low-cost-long-haul subsidiaries. Laker offers a sobering lesson. He successfully sued several legacy airlines for predatory pricing — but only after he had been forced out of business.
捷藍航空計劃從9月份開始進一步開通飛往倫敦蓋特威克機場的航班,并于明年夏天開通從波士頓飛往倫敦的航班。挪威航空公司打算在歐洲和美國的幾個目的地之間飛行。但提供全方位服務的航空公司不會在他們最賺錢的航線上接受挑戰。美國航空公司成功地游說了國內監管機構,讓他們減緩挪威航空的擴張。包括英國航空公司所有者國際航空集團(IAG)在內的老牌航空公司都推出了自己的廉價長途子公司。萊克航空提供了一個發人深省的教訓。它成功地起訴了幾家傳統航空公司的掠奪性定價——只不過這是在公司被迫倒閉之后。
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