Hi André,
Some remarks:
1) the biggest load on the BRU-ZRH-BRU flights are connecting pax (with the biggest part having economy class bargains). For the rest: only businessman will fly BRU-ZRH, it's not a tourist destination. And since there is also no competition, this means: high fares
2) the three European destinations you name there have bargain fares. Look at the logic of concurrence: you have to go under or equal the fare of the other airline serving this route.
Example Barcelona: the cheapest bargain of SN at this moment is about €160. If Belgians, owing a Swiss FF program, have to fly to BCN, they will not pay €300 to fly Swiss, if they can do it for €160 on SN (a small difference is ok for the FF program). So you must have about the same price as the carrier offering the direct flight. Problem is that if you fly BRU-BCN-BRU, you only occupie two seats. If you fly BRU-ZRH-BCN-ZRH-BRU, you occupie 4 seats. This drastically decreases the yield.
Brussels-Venice-Brussels with SN Brussels Airlines will cost you XXX €
But I'm quite sure that Brussels-Munich-Venice-Munich-Brussels will cost you less then a direct flight...
Actually, with some exceptions, a 'hub and spoke' flight will always be slightly more expensive than a direct flight. You give the example of flying via MUC here. Well, because SN decreased it's fares to VIE, OS did the same. With OS and LH being very close partners (the same FF program: miles and more,...), this example is true. A BRU-VIE-BRU ticket on SN is about the same price as the same route on OS, and is slightly cheaper as the same routing with LH via MUC/FRA. Note that this does not count for all examples.
A lot of business-man are using a system where they have to fly from Brussels to New York for example, they buy themself a ticket Dusseldorf-Brussels-New York-Brussels-Dusseldorf, they only show up at Brussels Airport!! Sometimes the carrier says: "Hell no!" but other carriers accept this...
It would higly surprise me if this is true. If you book DUS-BRU-JFK-BRU-DUS for example, and if you do not show up in DUS, all your other legs will be cancelled automatically. This would be too easy (maybe they make exceptions if you have a gold status on the airline, if you buy full fare Y/C class tickets,...). But if you are talking about bargains, forget it.
Regards
Frederic
