Billion Dollar Route - Jewels in The Network
Airline networks, a mix of destinations, some routes operating with high daily frequency and others with once a day service. For every airline there are a small selection of lucrative routes where either competitive advantage, market circumstances or limited competition make for very attractive revenues; they are the routes that are “protected” at all costs.
For 2019 we’ve analysed the data and revenues to reveal what are the highest revenue generating routes around the globe for some of the world’s largest airlines. And which routes generate the highest revenue per hour.
It’s an interesting list of routes and airlines.
Heathrow – JFK Is the Billion Dollar Route
British Airways, Heathrow – JFK New York service retains its number one position with some US$1.15 Billion of revenue making it the only route to break that barrier and actually reporting an increased revenue per hour of some 10% which will keep the accountants happy. With over 30% of BA seats on the route in either First or Business Class the importance and the value of the route is clear to see.
Whilst the top ten routes and airlines this year are unchanged which highlights both how valuable and incontestable some of these are in terms of size and scale. Analysis of the data on a revenue per hour basis this year does reveal some wide variations, amongst the top 10 revenue routes, LHR – JFK is some US$27,159 per hour is highest whilst an increasingly competitive YYZ – YVR market and low-cost competition probably accounts in part for only US$11,936 per hour for Air Canada.
Interestingly on a revenue per hour basis nine of the top ten routes have seen a reduction suggesting that perhaps the levels of competition both directly from other airlines and indirect routes.
The linkage between available capacity and revenue is perhaps best highlighted by five of the top ten routes operating from Heathrow which in part explains why long-haul airlines rush to fill available slots and existing carriers protect their networks. Equally half of the top ten routes are operated by oneWorld Alliance members with no Skyteam Alliance member route featuring.
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