There is a big difference between a route that makes money and a route that we pilots assume should make money. I've seen way too many pilots scream about a loss of a city or a change of a hotel simply because they liked flying there, had a girlfriend there or their favorite restaurant was nearby. There are simply markets we will not be able to penetrate due to market forces and the local passenger preference. One great example of that is Tel Aviv. DAL has been in and out of that market with different airplanes to different cities yet CAL filled two airplanes a day since we started flying there.

Another example is when we switched to LHR from LGW. Our pilots had a coronary and chalked it up as the stupidest decision ever because our loads appeared to drop, now it's one of the most profitable cities.

Long story short, we are good at flying airplanes but most pilots would suck a running an airline.