low load factors and I don't understand why

[meiru]

GW#4 ... tell me, why we have on LSZH-CYUL this distribution of pax... is it mainly because of the price, the CI, the aircraft type, the departure time... what is it? ... or, what do you think it might be. Where should I invest money to improve my load factors on LH flights? any ideas? ... is my CI of 50 too low for LH flights? ... it always workd for shorter flights... is this a bigger factor on LH? ... would be really interesting to get any information

[Kadachiman]

Route has 130 pax available
The 2 airlines are supplying 276 seats

Without getting into too much detail -
- the best you would do if everything was equal between the 2 airlines would be 50% (276/130)
- however you competitor is providing 2 flights and you are supplying 1 flight so he would get a frequency bonus...so your best LF is more like 35-40%
- if you have a much lower CI and RI than the competitor then you are likely to be getting 20-25% LF is my best guess
- so if you are at 20-25% LF then the result is predictable....hope this helps

your Dep & Arr times look ok
your aircraft choice is ok (so is his as no tech stop)
maybe he is going in at a lower price but if you lower yours then you may lose more money on the route
your CI is probably a little low vs. his for this LH route (I didn't look)

What can you do -
- leave it and wait for your RI and CI to improve
- pull the route and use your aircraft on a more profitable route (cut your losses)

[meiru]

a small price reduction plus CI over 50 and I doubled my market share... I think the CI made most of it, because I never saw such effects when I changed the price alone (on other routes)