CathInfo.com

If you try Cape Town to Brazil on that flight link ... you can find dozens of regular flights, nearly all through Europe and some even through the Middle East.

Here is the only one I could find that allegedly flies directly across the Ocean.

from LAD to GRU

So I go to click on that to book a flight for one adults, and it shows a ticket price of $4,000.

Who the heck is going to spend $4,000 on that ticket?

FEs have found an occasional flight that claims to violate FE model, and have booked them, and every single time they've gotten cancelled.

If I saw a fare for $4,000 when I could book one through Europe for $1,000, guess which one I'm going to book.

Again, there may be something to that with regards to FE but there is also another explanation.

Flights from anywhere to Vegas are extremely cheap.  Why?  Volume.  Supply and demand.

Flights which are difficult to fill are very expensive and if they don't sell enough seats they may be cancelled or the airline will simply lose money on it.

I think a reasonable explanation would be that it is certainly more profitable for the airline to fill seats. By flying through Europe or the Middle East the airline would be able to pick up more passengers. I doubt there is a huge interest in direct flights between Brazil and South Africa. It also stands to reason that $4000 would be an understandable price for some wealthy costumers who wanted a nonstop flight between the two places.  Incidentally, some friends of ours recently paid approximately $4000 for round trip tickets for travel from Australia to the USA via Europe!

I worked for the airlines in many different positions so I know this is how it works for a fact.  They don't care how far out of the way anybody has to go.  They only care about (excuse the vulgar talk but it's their mantra not mine)  "Butts in seats" and the bottom line which includes utilizing their main hubs and the bottom line.

For the bottom line, in addition to what I already explained about the hubs vs small outposts, they have the large provisioning/commissaries for food & drink at the hub cities.  They stock the plane for outbound and return with minimal provisioning at the non hub cities.  So going through the hub cities regularly is essential.


Now anybody who has traveled internationally has had the fun opportunity to look out their window and see the northern arctic, Alaska and Greenland.  :)
Why??????

For instance, look at the map above and draw a line from Los Angeles to Paris.  Would you fly over the arctic or Greenland?  No.  Yet that is how it goes.  

Fly from Los Angeles to Southern Asia and you go over Alaska.

If you haven't had the opportunity for one of these flights, emergency landings prove the routes:
2min55sec


This guy is Asian and from Brazil so he has a strange accent but he also worked for the airline and is very familiar with the bizarre flightroutes.  Emergency landings are the real eye openers:

1hour 16min



These flight routes going over the northern arctic do not put "butts in seats". 

They would definitely waste fuel on a globe model. 

They would SAVE FUEL on a flat earth model.

Anyone ever notice that M79 never says anything about FE/GE?  Kinda strange, no?