Inefficient Zao Ropeway Sanroku gondola

I have just visited the Zao snow monsters back in February and I waited two hours in the queue to get into the gondola.

I have sat in many other gondolas in Japan and this is the worst queue I have seen.

Why the owner doesn't bother to replace it with a double decker gondola that could ferry more people?

Or why wasn't it upgraded with a much faster gondola?

Why the owner doesn't bother to replace it with a double decker gondola that could ferry more people?

Was it just the lack of capacity or maybe some other problem they had on the day (e.g. earlier on that day)?

If it was simply a capacity problem, then the answer to your question is probably: because it is very expensive to replace or upgrade a gondolas, and the ski industry has just been through one of the worst four years in recent history. Furthermore, the cacpacity of the gondola is probably sufficient during most of the season, except on some particularly busy days during the snow monster season.

These are just my guesses.