When I played in West Germany in last GW2, it was especially tough. The distance to the juicy routes to Western/Central Europe were not long enough to make these red-eye-flights work
Yeah (W) Germany is one of those places where the curfews really hurt. Still, I've found, with a good CI, arriving in the early hours hurts FAR far less than departing then. A red-eye from Germany to Turkey, arriving at 03:00 and departing just after 05:00 would work pretty well and is only wasting 1hr. That's essentially what I was doing in Turkey (but the other way around, of course).
Remember, even if the flight makes $00.01 profit (or even a small loss), the harm it might do to your competitor's margins might outweigh that. Don't be afraid to cut prices by 30% or more on the less favourable leg.
If you are in the right spot with lots of demand in the right distance and with the right aircraft with the right speed, nice.
If you are NOT in the right spot with lots of demand and the right aircraft then.... that's your own fault really. Sorry I'm not really having a go at you personally- I sometimes deliberately choose "odd" places to play for the challenge, but things such as red-eye availability have a large bearing on where I choose to play. In Europe, being in GMT or in +2 gives you more options than being in +1. In the USA I find places like ORD (-6) work well because you have the choice of both east and westbound red-eyes, particularly early in the game with slower aircraft.
While a high utilization is a good indicator, I think the profit margin is a way better statistic to check.
Agreed, it's a better indication of how well the airline is run overall, but sometimes when looking for a new base you see a profitable airline, with good fleet choices and yet only 9hrs/day utilisation and you think "low hanging fruit..."