sn-remember wrote:You know nobody dares to venture in PTP or FDF either ...
I am glad you've mentioned those 2 destinationas, because I haven't dared to do so yet.
IMHO, you are 100 percent right on them.
Look at it this way: both BA/IB as well as AF/KL have a very good carribean network, each to their traditional (ex-colonial) strongholds of course, but BOTH airlines are known to be very profitable doing so.
In contrast, the LH group has nothing to offer in that area, mainly because none of the airlines has any collonial ties there. Howerer, I think the LH group should definitely consider serving some places there too in future and if it does I'd give the flights to either BD for what concerns English speeking destinations, or SN if talking about either the Dutch or French Caribbean destinations....
Indeed, there shouldn't be a reason why SN couldn't make a couple of triangular FDF-PTP flights work for instance: AF serves either destination 14 times weekly from ORY, so it's the same situation as above: you only need to take away a few percentages of the market to fill a plane and not everybody in France is living in Paris, so for them it really doesn't matter whether they go to ORY or to BRU to get onto their long haul flight!
Other places of interest in the AF/KL timetable for that region could be found at SXM (served 10 times weekly by AF+KL), CAY (served 7 times weekly by AF), PBM (served 5 times weekly by KL).
Not to mention the abundance of BA and VS routes to the eastern Carribean: ANU, UVF, TAB or POS for instance, although it might be wiser to let those places to BD, should they wish to.
Conclusion, there is definitely enough potential to reserve a single plane for the Carribean on a full time basis, and especially if we also include the BA/VS routes, it practically becomes a ZERO risk business case!
Sadly, this kind of out-of-the-box expansion is way beyond the capabilities of SN and it's a pitty really, because there sure is a unique market opportunity here up for grabs by them, given the geo-strategical position of BRU (right between AMS and CDG and very near to LON) and the commercial assets of SN (well connected to France and the UK, English French AND Dutch speeking crews, ...) which no other scheduled airline in Europe can offer! I'd say it is a pitty SN hasn't tapped into this pool.
LH has just about discovered there's a whole world outside the Europe, Asia and the America's in the form of Africa... Maybe SN should show them there are other very interesting areas they haven't tapped into? Especially in the face of the ever growing competition from EK and other gulf carrier on routes to the east, new routes southbound and/or westbound are a good investment and a great path to more diversification for LH as they are guaranteed to remain out of the gready hands of the gulf carriers!
