Do things like speed and aircraft size/comfort impact demand

pocketbookbrando · **on:** December 31, 2007, 08:43:30 pm

I have a question around demand in a marketplace. Do aircraft size and speed impact the demand for said flights on a route? That is, would a plan with 10 seats that flies 500 mph be able to charge much more than one that flies at 100. Is there a bias towards jets or larger planes for comfort sake?

Pacific · **Reply #1 on:** December 31, 2007, 08:45:20 pm

The answer is yes.

pocketbookbrando · **Reply #2 on:** December 31, 2007, 08:46:56 pm

So flying a plane that seats 9 people that flights at the speed of light would let you charge 2k where a slow plane would get 500?

CornField · **Reply #3 on:** December 31, 2007, 09:28:35 pm

No, not in that way...

Speed only effects how many miles a plane can move in a given day.

The number of seats however does effect the amount you can make... There are a certain number of passenger available on a given route, so if only a few of those pax are getting seats you can charge more.....

pocketbookbrando · **Reply #4 on:** January 01, 2008, 12:13:08 am

Let me rephrase as that is an answer that is much more basic than what I asked. Given a route with X demand, will i be able to charge more for a
10 seat 500 MPH jet vs
10 seat 200 MPH turbo prop
assuming that both planes will only be flying this route once and no other route. That is, ceteris paribus, will people pay more for a given route if the plane is faster or more comfortable?

suntoucher · **Reply #5 on:** January 01, 2008, 02:42:36 am

No, tickets prices are based on seats available only. Speed only increases the number of flights that plane can do in a day so that the 500km/h would do twice as many flights as the 250km/h and would make twice the money provided that the routes have the same number of passengers.

dktc · **Reply #6 on:** January 01, 2008, 04:35:15 am

suntoucher is incorrect.

Seat and speed both have impacts, to various degrees.

Air Elbonia · **Reply #7 on:** January 01, 2008, 06:06:37 am

Speed starts to affect you when competition hits, initially there's no impact for a 50knot plane vs a 50,000 knot plane; but when competition hits it starts to have a little effect.

Aircraft size also can have a significant effect on demand. it has a bit of a bias against small planes, both to represent general market bias [not as many people are willing to fly in a 9 seat plane as they are in a 747] as well as to prevent the tiny aircraft from being too powerful in-game. The effect can drop off dramatically as the plane gets smaller, and has pretty much no affect around the mid 70 seat range. an 8 seater faces about half the "normal demand", simply because it's so tiny. but that's not to say it doesn't have its time and place. a 50 seater has +- most of the normal demand.

There's a lot in the route formula... just not a lot i've explained openly. one of these days when i smooth out the fuzzy logic portion it'll probably shine through a little bit more.

Pacific · **Reply #8 on:** January 01, 2008, 10:38:07 am

Quote from: "Air Elbonia"

Damn, I stayed silent for a reason! :twisted: