FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
INTL UNSERVED ROUTES REPORT
2) I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DATES?
5) HOW DOES REVENUE SORT WORK?
6) WHY ARE FARES AND TRAFFIC NOT SHOWN EXACTLY?
9) CAN YOU HIGHLIGHT MARKETS THAT ARE NEW OR HAVE DROPPED OFF?
2) I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DATES?
Demand data reporting lags about 4-6 months. This reports takes the most recent quarter of demand data (as well as showing the same quarter a year earlier) and removes any market served in the same upcoming quarter. For example, if 4th Quarter 2020 is the newest quarter of demand, this report shows largest unserved markets for 4th Quarter 2021 based on schedule from 4Q2021 and demand from 4Q2020. There are situations where the most recent quarter of demand data cannot be used, see the other FAQ questions for an explanation of why.
3) WHAT IS "UNSERVED"?
A market must have at least 1 flight per week during the quarter to be considered served. Unserved is less than that.
4) WHAT IS THE FORMAT?
#RANK; Year Quarter for traffic in range of PER DAY EACH WAY PASSENGERS (PDEW) (PDEW for one year earlier); Year Quarter Roundtrip Fare Rating(Fare Rating for one year earlier); Number of departures/Day in the same upcoming quarter, usually zero or near zero
5) HOW DOES REVENUE SORT WORK?
Market revenue is stage adjusted using an industry standard formula for comparing fares over distance. Such a formula is necessary because fares and costs do not scale with distance. There is a fixed cost to depart and reach cruising altitude related to airport costs, maintenance cost related to one operating cycle, taxi time, and increased fuel burn to reach cruising altitude (as well as the same costs for a landing). These costs do not change by distance, so a fare of $1000 for 1000 miles is much more profitable than a fare of $500 for 500 miles.
6) WHY ARE FARES AND TRAFFIC NOT SHOWN EXACTLY?
The process used to collect international traffic and fares, which is detailed HERE, is inexact, but relatively accurate. To avoid debate with other sources, we have elected to generalize the data. To note, no DOT restricted data is used in the process and traffic is intended to include all airlines.
7) ISN'T THERE NEWER DATA?
Because we use year earlier demand data for a quarter to compare unserved markets in that same future quarter, there can be problems with airlines that do not publish their schedule far enough ahead to appear in the proper upcoming quarter. For example, as of September 2nd, 2021, Southwest did not have a schedule published beyond the first few days of January 2022. So, while 1Q2021 demand data has been available for quite a few weeks, this report cannot roll forward to checking unserved markets for 1Q2022 because all Southwest monopoly markets would qualify as unserved.
8) WHAT DOES BOLD MEAN?
Bold means that the market became unserved for this period as of this week. Whatever flights that were shown a week earlier were reduced below the minimum to qualify it as served.
9) CAN YOU HIGHLIGHT MARKETS THAT ARE NEW OR HAVE DROPPED OFF?
Markets that are newly unserved are show in BOLD. It is much more complicated to show markets that have dropped off due to service commencing. While it is possible, it not something easily added and there are no plans to add it at this time.