On the original message:
ID: 18849
Airline name: OnTime airlines
World: PW #740 (The Planet)
I started with about 8 years left in the world, there's 3 years left now. I'm now ranked 12'th in that world, and own the following aircraft:
Airbus A319 --------10
Airbus A320-100 ----3
Airbus A320-200 ----11
Boeing 757-300 -----2
Boeing 767-300 -----2
Boeing 767-300ER ---2
Boeing 777-200ER ---1
Douglas DC-9-50 ----1
DOC is 9.15 million, Airline value is 2.6 billion, daily passengers 52,829, average loadfactor of 96.91%, 167 routes and 119 destinations in 3 continents. All 6 bases created in USA ... I have not yet assigned routes to all my aircraft, there's about 6 that I just recieved from the manufacturer that I still need to put on routes. So I'm not using all my planes ATM, but will assign them throughout the weekend (just because it takes so long to setup a plane on a full routes)
I've noticed something that can actually put your airline in a bad situation: your long haul a/c (being the 767-300, 767-300ER, and 777-200ER) may be fine, but if you say they do not make much, it may be because you have not used them on the routes that actually need those a/c. Say for example:
If you have a base in ATL, you might want to use the 777-200ER for long trips like ATL to Europe or ATL to South America, then combine those trips with a heavy domestic trip (two, if feasible), like ATL-JFK, ATL-BOS, ATL-ORD, ATL-LAX, ATL-SFO, or ATL-YYZ. Same story goes for the 767-300 and 767-300ER, wherein you want to maximize your profit by allowing them to be more flexible and serve "high-density" domestic and "medium- to high-density" international destinations.
This is where "hotswapping" can be a really good idea for you because it will allow you to be more flexible on which trips get larger aircraft to keep up with competition while allowing routes with smaller demand (passenger-wise) to have smaller aircraft and have larger DOCs than putting them with larger aircraft.
There are things you can consider when operating those large aircraft, including:
1) Passenger loads. If a route says that it is "Excellent", chances are some airlines would take advantage of that route by using bigger aircraft to keep up with demand, and by getting larger aircraft that would suit a trip, your chances of getting the most profit would be great.
2) Operating time. Your aircraft will have a high DOC if you operate multiple routes on a single plane, making sure that it has less than 1 hour left flying time and each destination has a "1" frequency (complete round trip).
3) Maintenance costs. Of course, the bigger and/or older an aircraft becomes, the higher the maintenance costs, thus, if you want to keep your airline balance high, make sure you retire some of your oldest planes and replace them with newer ones. You made great in purchasing new, larger aircraft, but, maintenance costs for them are high. Try to get smaller ones that have smaller loads but allow greater flexibility for trips, like the A319, A320, or B737.
4) Route choices. Here's my key to the aircraft combinations you can use for all conditions:
| Route "Grade" | Options |
| Average | Use smaller, regional aircraft for those routes. These trips act as "fillers" for local areas to the big cities, and these tend to have less competition from other airlines. |
| Good | Use primarily regional aircraft for those routes. If competition increases on these trips, use small jets (A319, A320, B737) to make up what the other airlines use. |
| Very Good | Use small to medium-sized jets for those routes. These trips are some of the "busier" domestic or medium- to long-haul international trips, and be warned that other airlines could use larger jets for these trips. |
| Excellent | Use medium- to larger-sized aircraft for those routes. Primarily the busiest domestic and international trips that require large planes to handle the large passenger loads. |
Use the table as a guide only to choose what aircraft is best suited for which routes.
Also, regarding ATRs:
A single A319 based out of Atlanta actually makes me 750K profit each day. I've never really thought about ATR's, but now that you mention it I may get some.
I purchsed those 767's just by looking at other airlines in my world.. everyone seems to have them, and nobody seems to have ATR's. But usually the one that does things different stands out eh?
I used ATRs before in another public world, in which i was one of the many who used the aircraft, but only one of two who operated the longer-range ATR 42-300 aircraft that allowed me to do regional trips without compensating for fuel usage (speed, though, was quite slow). I would explore getting some of the ATR 42-300 (if available) to use for your regional trips that are in the "good" range (cf. table above) so that you can get a feel of what regional travel is all about.
I could provide more tips, it's just that it's all up to you to form your airline to what you want it to become. For more questions, feel free to PM me here.
