Reply To: Bangkok business is booming for everyone except BA

[Londonsteve]

If BA operated from a normal hub airport that offered sufficient capacity for BA to fly any route it thought commercially advantageous it would probably fly to BKK and do so profitably. The fact the route wouldn’t be as high margin as JFK, DXB, LAX or whatever is a moot point. There’s money to be made and other airlines are there and making it. BA is both advantaged as well as simultaneously suffocated by operating from a hub with zero slack to operate new routes without either paying ludicrous sums of money to buy (or lease) slots, or deciding which route is going to a lose a flight so that you can use the slot to fly elsewhere. BA is largely unique among global airlines in having their expansion potential capped no matter how well the management perform.

Until this changes, or the US economy severely declines along with the viability of all those routes to secondary cities, I can’t see BKK coming back in the next decade.