I have noticed at least half of my routes suffered this strange effect where traffic demand in one direction is nowhere near close to the opposite direction. The ratio which used to be more less 1:1 has now dropped to 2:1 or even 3:1 or even more… up to 30:0 on one route. This is so since the recent traffic demand recalculation (great job).
Basically this makes it impossible for me to schedule reasonable routes on half of my flights. It seems as a complete nonsense to me but maybe there is some sense behind the scenes that I am missing.
Good point. I checked this . The ratio of external guests or switches is balanced in my example. Depending on the day with the badly booked flight even a little better.
Generally, the demand between two airports AAA-BBB is always the same both ways.
As TheThomate mentioned, connections are the most common reason for for load factors on a return flight. Combined with departure and arrival times, ORS ratings, competition, ground networks, demand distribution time at involved airports and so on, it’s difficult to find a specific cause and adjust to it - while someone else might be having the same issues in the opposite travel direction (I mean, the passengers still have to go somewhere). The more flights and capacity you offer, some of the factors even out though, so it tends to become less of a problem then.
Just reminds me now that I read the TOs post…
I had the very same issue this summer. Old grown airline with perfectly coordinated waves of hundreds of airframes to both directions and absolutely stable bookings throughout the year. All of a sudden I had a massive drop of loads in only one direction. Affected were flights between the US westcoast and several central US hubs - but only ever just one direction while the other was fully booked. Made absolutely no sense given the number of flights with hundreds of top ranked connections.
some people also apply cheaper prices on one segment than another (especially since ASEnhancement), so that could be a reason why…check the ORS/Market Analysis both ways - you can also price the return cheaper if you’re happy with your outbound loads
Yes I’ve checked. I am both times. Also the amount of lower rated non-direct connections is almost the same, with the highest of non-direct connections having the same ORS rating aswell.
Another city pair where I can see this behaviour is DXB-RUH. Full flights out of RUH but bad loads out of DXB, even though I’ve got more connex pax on the emptier flight.
The highest in the ORS will not necessarily fill up its plane if he does not have the right connections to feed it, the right service, the right partnerships, the right plane, the right staff, etc. …
It also depends a lot on the Agex index.
What game world are you on?
I’ve noticed an odd difference in DEL-BOM demand. DEL-BOM in my case seems to get 15% less bookings while BOM-DEL is easily filled to 100% after 1-2 demand calculations.
I noticed this on the previous private server I play on and it has always striked me as odd. Connections were definately not an issue. Currently I’m seeing it again.
If there is a flaw somewhere this could be another route to check up on.
- you can also price the return cheaper if you’re happy with your outbound loads
