Going Too Fast?

[General_Flyer]

I've been playing for a week now, or around 7 months in W506..

I have 3 hubs in Singapore, Surabaya, and Seattle. Right now I have a DOC of 6.2 Mil.

I use 21 leased plane which 11 are Tu-104V and 10 Sud Caravelles; along with that 9 owned aircrafts which all are turboprops ranging from DHC-2 to Convair 640.

My question is, am I going too fast? I know that at the end of every month, there's always the negative on my finance department. I'm worried that in the end this will ruin the airline because of fast expansions that I've been doing.. Am I doing the right thing or should I back down with what I have and buy aircrafts replacing the leased ones?

Thanks so much for your time and your replies..

[gisa]

Hi,


Seems like you are doing very well.  There really is no such thing as too fast.   The idea is that leases help increase your cash flow on a temporary basis, so you can purchase planes to replace the leases.  That's what I'd be doing if I were you (unless of course, you have plenty of time left on your leases).  Leases can be good as you don't pay maintenance but they won't make you as much money as if you owned the plane itself.

I'd also work on upgrading the turboprops if they serve large cities to jets.  Keep them on low PDX routes.

The end of month is when you pay many monthly fees (gate rentals, leasing fees) so your bank account will take a hit.  Best thing to do is to plan around it.  You can either try to save up some money before the end of the month comes (so as to be able to pay most if not all of the fees you have pay) or plan on buying planes well into the next month once you've broken even.

Gisa ^^

[General_Flyer]

I'm going to just chill a little bit.. Starting to buy 2 aircrafts/month going to augment my fleet and starting a lease fleet of my own.. I hope in 22 more days to gain a fleet of 44 aircrafts of 22 caravelles + Tu-104V and 22 Convair 640s for lease..

Or if I'm going aggressive, I'm planning to open a hub in Frankfurt and New York on the same day.. Which is I think a stupid plan.. Anyways, we shall see how things goes either I am going on the expansion or fleet replenishment.

[General_Flyer]

Iam currently building my fleet and rooting out lease-in aircrafts, but as the competition continues; I'm having a hard time keeping my revenue and therefore is thinking of another expansion.. The problem is, I'm still having 28 lease-in jets in service while now I'm slowly ordering planes to phasing them out..

Revenue as of now is 8.7 mil euros/day

The questions are:

1. Should I phase them out or use them to create new routes from new bases? I'm thinking of opening one in Beijing, Delhi, and Dubai..
2. With the competition I'm always trying to get on top with 100% fleet loads and am currently very much addicted to this game. As the routes are more and more competitive, what can I introduce to stop the continuous falling prices from the competition (in which I must respond in also lowering prices)?
3. Does anyone here charges for miscellaneous goods (food and drinks)? Because I'm not, and is this a mistake?
4. I have not owned any gates yet and am itching on continuous expansion until my slot for expansion is gone.. Should I expand or build terminals?

Thanks in advance..

[gisa]

8.7 million Euros is not a bad DOC (same I have at the moment).  If I were you, I'd keep focusing on replacing the leases as your first priority.  You'll actually save money in terms of leasing fees and your net worth will go up.  Leases are temporary...

Another way to save money is to build terminals, but they come with a steep price tag.  If you are committed to the room and have a lot of time left in it (over 2.5 years) build them as soon as you can too (after you've phased out a lot of your leases).

to answer your questions:
1. I would phase out your leases before expanding (you'll have more money to expand later after you've done this and it will be much easier to do so).
2. 100% loadfactor is impossible (unless you play 24-7!) especially with lots of planes.   Just a reality...aim to edit routes lower than a set percentage to help.  There is no general strategy to avoid doing them...that's part of the game.
3. Yes, you should charge for food and drinks.  Play around with the numbers until you find the highest amount you can pull in.
4.  While phasing out your leases, consider terminals asap.  They save you 25% of a rented gates costs each month (they pay for themselves in about 2.5 years time) while upping your net worth nicely.

There are plenty of strategy articles here to read too, so give them a look.  The game manual is well written and fairly accurate too.  I learned a lot by reading both of these and through playing AM.  We also have our own strategy articles on our forums:

www.5thmrc.com/am

Good luck!


Gisa ^^

[dktc]

Just a word of caution...

Do NOT believe everything that people tell you. Some of the so-called "strategies" I have seen are completely uneducated and untrue. (I am not point fingers at anyone... but use your common sense as to why I am posting this here...)

[General_Flyer]

Got it!

But does the miscellaneous prices decrease the load?

Thanks everyone for the help!