I think Cebu put 436 passengers on their A330s. Not sure what Qantas has numbers wise, but surely 100 extra passengers means it takes longer to get to cruising altitude.
So you agree that using a smaller airport, is a much faster propostion ? That's what Neeleman (Moxy) is counting on in U.S.
further
Here's an example I saw for a U.S. airline using secondary ariports, modified for Bankstown to Essendon.
A business person living near Parramatta needs to go to Melbourne CBD for the day & be there by 9am.
By road Parramatta to SYD is at best, 51 mins on roads with tolls. Due to congestion, he/she needs to allow more like 90 mins.
Because of airport delays at both SYD & MEL ends, they book the 0600 flight, rather than a later flight, returning at 1800.
The only book the 0600 because on average, there will be delays somewhere en route.
So, they get up at 0300 to either drive or get taxi/Uber at 0400 to be at SYD by 0500-0530 for 0600 departure, to arrive MEL by 0735, but most days would get delayed, so their arrival time would most likely be closer to 0800. They then need to get out the airport(hopefully without having to wait for any checked luggage) & get a taxi/Uber to join the traffic into the CBD. They should get there before 0900.
But if they flew out of Bankstown, instead of 51 mins minimum to get to SYD, they are looking at 26 mins with no tolls.
Because of massive car parking charges at SYD many would incur the cost of a taxi/Uber, probably another AUD$50 to $70 each way, whereas at Bankstown, they could park right at the terminal, around 100m from parked aircraft, at no or negligible cost whatsoever. If they had any luggage, they would simply carry it to aircraft.
Other benefit of self driving, is you don't have to rely on Uber/taxi turning up on time, so you might order it to arrive 10 to 15 mins before actually needed.
Block times for a Saab/Dash 8/Dornier 328/Atr 42 turboprop might be slightly longer Bankstown to Essendon(but not a Dorneir 328 jet), than a jet SYD/MEL, but due to congestion at both SYD & MEL the difference would be negligible (airlines timetable their SYD/MEL at 1.35).
So instead of getting up at 0300 to be in Melbourne CBD by 0900, they could probably get up at 0430 to depart home by 0530 to be right at Bankstown terminal by 0555(25 mins up their sleeve to allow for traffic delays), to depart by 0630 to arrive at MEB by 0805. Exiting the aircraft at MEB would be much faster than at MEL & then could probably be in Melbourne CBD by 0835, as MEB is closer to Melbourne CBD than MEL, they would also save another 10 mins or so at least.
So less stress, possibly lower cost, 90 mins more sleep & that’s only in one direction.
Are any of the assumptions above incorrect in your opinion ?