Any Sense in less than 100% Loadfactor?

[RobertCooper]

I've noticed that a lot of my competitors average less than 100% loadfactor on their operations. Is there any sense in operating flights that are less than 100% full? Enlighten me, because I do not see the logic.

[1993matias]

If you have precisely 100% loadfactor, you earn the most money possible on that route. But the difference between 95% and 100% is small, so don't bother lowering the prices if you don't want to have an average of 100%.

I hope this answers your questions.

[CHR]

It costs you money to edit routes, so you may waste money if you are close to 100%, but you would aim to set them at 100% when adjusting fares. Indeed, one may decide to have a lower price than needed for 100% so you don't need to edit your routes as often...

[TheKevinShow]

At a certain point, though, the amount of money you spend on route research becomes pocket change.

[Mastafa]

At a certain point, though, the amount of money you spend on route research becomes pocket change.

True, but it can costs a LOT! Once, I got charged up to 1,500,000! Plus, if you edit the route, the next time the competitor will come back on, he will edit the route, and you will do. So, after a while, it will be like spending 100s of millions for the sake of a few routes!

[TheKevinShow]

Yeah, but it's not like you pay the research costs every time you edit the route.

[1993matias]

Once in a month you pay. So if you edit a route three times in 24 hours (one game month), you only pay once.

[Mastafa]

Yeah, but it's not like you pay the research costs every time you edit the route.

Once in a month you pay. So if you edit a route three times in 24 hours (one game month), you only pay once.

Okkkkk....

But in a Jumbo airline, arent there many rroutes to affect the LF? in that case, editing all routes will cost your knuckles

[TheKevinShow]

Not really. As I said, at a certain point you start making so much money that it becomes pocket change.

[n301dp]

I don't know if it's a fluke of the system, but depending on certain routes/airplanes, you'll make a larger profit at 99.5-99.8% load factor than you will at 100%. It's usually no more than a few hundred $$ either direction, but that might make a difference 

[pseudoswede]

Do you adjust fares to the cent?

[Virgin Serbia]

Do you adjust fares to the cent?

When i create routes, i do. But i usually don't bother to edit them if competition forces them down to at mot 95%.

[jayceon]

At a certain point, though, the amount of money you spend on route research becomes pocket change.

True, but it can costs a LOT! Once, I got charged up to 1,500,000! Plus, if you edit the route, the next time the competitor will come back on, he will edit the route, and you will do. So, after a while, it will be like spending 100s of millions for the sake of a few routes!

Change routes to the cent and the competitor will keep his 100% load factor and so do you. Will save you, and your competitor a lot of route changes And I do agree with TheKevinShow. It really becomes pocket change when your incomes becomes higher.

[Mastafa]

At a certain point, though, the amount of money you spend on route research becomes pocket change.

i agree too, but not when u are a starter airline!

True, but it can costs a LOT! Once, I got charged up to 1,500,000! Plus, if you edit the route, the next time the competitor will come back on, he will edit the route, and you will do. So, after a while, it will be like spending 100s of millions for the sake of a few routes!

Change routes to the cent and the competitor will keep his 100% load factor and so do you. Will save you, and your competitor a lot of route changes And I do agree with TheKevinShow. It really becomes pocket change when your incomes becomes higher.

[Lord Voldemort]

To any new players that happen to chance upon this:
1. If you have hundreds of routes, it's just not worth the time to edit each route to squeeze out a few extra $.
2. More importantly: to stop the price wars. At some point, realize that it's better to take a 93.18% Load Factor earning you 50k than each of you going down, down, and further down until even though you have 100% load factor you might only be earning 30-40k. I remember in the Public Worlds the LHR - CDG route, what you would think would be one of the most profitable due to insanely high passenger counts in both places, and the low fuel, actually only ended up earning you 40k tops by year 5. Why? Everyone wants a piece of the pie, and they want their piece of the pie to by 100% of the theoretical size. Unfortunately, they were giving away bits of the pie in the process...

One of my routes in my current game: Frankfurt to Rome.
There are 4 of us there, and everyone priced it at 330. My LF is only 79%. However, I know if I break this balance that we have here, it'll only start to hurt as the price will drop, 1 euro at a time, to god knows what.