Marketing Scales?

[auerbacs]

I know that the major determiner of the cost of marketing is the number of routes an airline has. Does the demand of these routes or the frequency that I fly them make any difference to this cost. In other words, if I dedicate 20 planes to a high demand route, does that route add to my general marketing cost the same amount as a 50-person demand route that I fly daily?

Thanks,
Auerbacs

[Sigma]

No, density is key to a lower marketing cost, and one of the reasons why regional-type operators still have a hard go of it compared to larger operations in AWS.

If you're flying 20 planes to the same destination and someone else is flying 20 planes to 20 different destinations, they're going to have a pretty hefty Marketing bill compared to yours.  This makes sense really.  If you're only flying to a single destination it's a lot easier to advertise to your target market than if you fly to 20.  You've got to buy, essentially, 20 times the billboard space, commercial time, etc.

The number of flights does seem to factor in, but it's the number of routes that's, by far, the primary factor.  Regardless, someone operating much larger aircraft is going to be operating less flights/day as well all else being equal.

[auerbacs]

Cool, thanks Sigma. I originally thought that it was just a factor of distinct destinations, but I noticed that it seemed to be going up even when I opened up further flights on a route I already ran. What you're saying accounts for that small increase.

Thanks,
Shane