My wager, Rich, is that the flight with the "low sales" may have been canceled, not for low sales, but because the aircraft is needed as a spare for another flight that has to go out. Note your own words..."the aircraft would be used elsewhere". They aren't adding a flight at that late date -- it's used as a replacement.
Scenario....flight from ORD to whatever comes up mechanical, there is a full aircraft of people and no later flights with seats to reschedule them to. So, scheduling needs an aircraft and grabs one that has the least impact on both the overall schedule and pax. Where might that be....how about ORD-LGA, with the high frequency to cover re-accommodating a light load??
I don't say that aircraft aren't swapped when MX rears its ugly head. What I do contend is that you don't get cancellations just because of light load.
Ask your in-house source for more specifics....were the cancellations simply for light load or because the aircraft was needed elsewhere?? The devil is in the details.
