On Oct 15, 1:38 pm, Jay Honeck wrote:
As Singapore airlines has probably made more profit in the last 10 years
than the whole of the big US legacy carriers put together, I would suspect
their judgement is better than anything the US has to offer.

I confess I know nothing about Singapore Airlines, so bear with me.

How is it that they are so profitable, in a cut-throat, competitive
world-wide market?

Last year I took a round the world business trip that included a
majority of flights in the Pacific Rim, most of them on Cathay Pacific
(I was on a oneworld ticket, and that alliance doesn't include
Singapore Airlines, which is part of Star Alliance I believe). I also
flew Qantas quite a bit, and a few other local carriers like Dragonair
(which is owned by Cathay Pacific).

The biggies that fly all over the pacific all provide a level of
service that U.S. customers haven't seen for years. However it's not
that fair a comparison because almost all flights on those airlines
are international and very long. Most of these airlines fly mostly
international, while U.S. airlines fly mostly domestic, and it shows
in how they work on both types of flights. The domestic flights in
that region are few and far between and not usually on the flagship
carriers, because most of the countries, except Australia and China,
are too small geographically. The domestic flights I did take, on
Dragonair in China and Qantas in Australia, were not any better or
worse than U.S. domestic flights in my opinion. Qantas is probably
the only major airline in the region that also does a significant
amount of domestic flying and they are pretty good at it, but it ain't
like the international flights that leave Americans raving at how good
airline service in the Asia-Pacific region is. And oh by the way
Qantas is getting its lunch eaten domestically by lower cost, no-
frills domestic airlines.

Anyway, international flights are more profitable than domestic
flights, period. Even the U.S. carriers do well financially on their
international service, which is why they fight so hard for those
routes. So if you're a carrier that flies mostly international,
you'll be doing better than one that flies mostly domestic as a
general rule -- and that describes most major airlines in that part of
the world. Oh, the travel market in that part of the world is booming
anyway.