Why would American fly a 777 from RDU to London everyday?

Question

It is no wonder so many airlines are going into bankruptcy. Why does American Airlines use their biggest plane to fly daily flights that are only 20% full. Did they make a deal with someone else to fly this route daily?

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL174/history

But, a 757 or even a 737-800 can fly that route. RDU is just not anywhere near a big enough airport to have that kind of daily service as you can see from this picture.

http://www.airliners.net/open.file?id=0289169&WxsIERv=Obrvat%20777-223%2FRE&Wm=0&WdsYXMg=Nzrevpna%20Nveyvarf&QtODMg=Va%20Syvtug&ERDLTkt=Vagreangvbany%20Nvefcnpr&ktODMp=Bpgbore%2023%2C%202002&BP=1&WNEb25u=Fgrcuna%20Gbcubira&xsIERvdWdsY=A7%2A%2ANA&MgTUQtODMgKE=Erne%20frpgvba%20bs%20gur%20pbnpu%20pnova%20ba%20gur%20jnl%20sebz%20EQH-YTJ%20ng%20avtug.%20Nf%20lbh%20pna%20frr%2C%20gur%20bpphcnapl%20ba%20guvf%20syvtug%20jnf%20irel%20cbbe.&YXMgTUQtODMgKERD=17350&NEb25uZWxs=2002-10-27%2000%3A00%3A00&ODJ9dvCE=&O89Dcjdg=&static=yes&width=1024&height=683&sok=JURER%20%20%28%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27914482%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27825731%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27751496%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27702679%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27677867%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27521468%27%20BE%20cubgb_vq%20%3D%20%27517794%27%20BE%20c

Answer 1

They use the 777 for the tremendous range that the aircraft has. The daily route from RDU to LGW is a well established route that American has been running since I was a ramp agent back in 1994. The amount of seats sold on the flight is cyclical. From now through the end of the year, you should see those seats fill up. The route is indeed profitable. That is evident through the fact that it survived the massive route reduction at RDU by American in 1995. They had a daily Paris flight as well as 100 + Americam Eagle flights per day. When the smoke cleared, the only places you could go on American from RDU were NY, Dallas, Miami, Tampa, Chicago, and London.

If the route wasn't profitable, I doubt they would have kept it this long.

Answer 2

The 777 is incredibly fuel efficient, and any other aircraft would be even more ill suited.
The 747 is far too large, the 737 is far less efficient and most models dont have the range.
The 757 and 767 are less efficient, and in the same class performance wise.

Answer 3

American bought those landing slots from TWA long before they bought them out in an effort to expand their transatlantic business. I was on a TWA trip back in 89 and it was only after I got to JFK that i realized I was going to cross the Atlantic in an AMERICAN AIRLINES 747SP. Some routes are at full capacity only during certain time of year but the airline can't pick and choose when to offer the service once it's established.

Answer 4

We do not know if that is a highly traveled cargo route... maybe it is a high demand market... Also, it could just be a repositioning flight... there are many variables... One note however, an airline can pick and chose when it wants to offer flights to and from a destination... they can cancel their entire winter schedule to a destination if it is not performing well...

Answer 5

You can't go by that.
My wife once flew Chicago Philadelpha on a DC10 with 50 passengers on board.
At Philadelphia, it was scheduled to return to Chicago, and it was sold out.
Are they at 20% every day? if not, what is the average load factor?

Answer 6

Remember it's not just about the passengers, cargo is what really is important to the airline.

Answer 7

british airways sends tons of 777 to us daily