Contact Us

Commercial strategy, Quick reads

Tips for developing stable and profitable routes

February 22, 2022

As global travel returns, airlines and airports need to optimize their routes and networks.

Every airline and airport planner has their own method for trying to identify the next best idea for a new service. As global travel returns, airlines and airports need to identify stable revenue opportunities and take advantage of recent disruptions to optimize their routes and networks.

Cirium Diio Mi has long been an aviation planner “favorite,” and recent updates and features make it a critical tool for route development.

Recent updates make route planning even easier:

It is now more critical than ever to discover and analyze new revenue opportunities. It is also easier to do so. Diio users can do their background research and run a comprehensive route forecast, quickly and easily—all in one place for a complete end-to-end route analysis.

  • Identify markets based upon size, fare, business / leisure mix, and, revenue and catchment 
  • Review current service levels and analyze existing revenue
  • Benchmark the competition
  • Forecast traffic by market, aircraft and frequency
  • Analyze revenue and yield
  • Identify and monetize contextual demand insights

Getting started

Airline marlet opportunity analysis

Start by finding that next best opportunity by identifying attractive markets based upon size, fare, business/leisure mix, and revenue. 

This provides an idea of how travelers are getting from point A to point B today; thereby offering a little intelligence as to who a new entrant carrier into the market may be stealing market share from.

Filter to show just first class, business, and premium economy passengers to figure out the percentage of that 931 passengers that travel at premium fares…in this case 13%.

A simple side-by-side analysis using Diio Mi’s Schedule Snapshot can easily identify which of these next best opportunities already have nonstop competition.  This comparison will show there are plenty of attractive, unserved routes, out there in the world today just waiting for nonstop service.

Once a route is selected for further analysis, Diio makes it quick and easy to run a route forecast to determine if the economics of launching a new route are viable. Using Diio’s  schedule and traffic modules, calibrate the Scenario Planner module to produce a realistic result for the new route.  The tool allows you to forecast up to three roundtrip frequencies in a market, on any existing aircraft, with a customizable number of seats on the aircraft.

Choose whether to forecast the route on a daily or less-than-daily basis 

Airline  route forecasting tool

From this point, look at similar routes to determine market stimulation, model the effects of competitor airlines pulling out of the market, determine the appropriate connections the model will build and even choose to include the effect of codeshare agreements with other carriers.

Forecast results are often ready in less than one minute and are quite detailed. In addition to the basics (load factor, fare, revenue), Diio provides the probable composition of the passengers on a flight. It provides summary data on both local travelers and travelers going on to other destinations.

passenger composition on a commercial flight.
Full QSI forecast for LAX to ICN

RELX logo