Time Remaining

[fazon]

In real life, an airline would never schedule the plane to be in the air for more than approimately 16 hours. There should be some sort of feature that limits our ability to schedule a plane with no time remaining. The chances of every flight being exactly on time is around 0%, which is why I suggested the delayed flights idea. I still think it would be a good idea because the more time you schedule a plane for, the more chance of there being a delay, or even cancellation. Also, aircraft age, hours, cycles would also be a factor seeing as how maintenance can effect the quality of an aircraft. I know you don't like random events but this really isn't random.

[steventommyobama]

I like that!  A very good idea, and people wouldn't be flying at 2 A.M unless it was red-eye/long-haul.

[AlaskaAir77]

Not going to happen, If it did this game would be as chaotic as EWR.

[pseudoswede]

In real life, an airline would never schedule the plane to be in the air for more than approimately 16 hours.

Not 100% true.

Then why do red-eye flights exist? Does that mean the plane sits idle during the day?

[pseudoswede]

I like that!  A very good idea, and people wouldn't be flying at 2 A.M unless it was red-eye/long-haul.

Look at the schedules of most Middle Eastern and Indian airlines.

[fazon]

What successful airline, with a a reputation for being on-time, schedules their planes for more than 16 hours.

[pseudoswede]

Emirates (I think they're pretty successful, right?) - their DXB-LAX flight alone is 16h30m, then a 2h30m turnaround, then 15h45m return to DXB.  I highly doubt it sits around for the other 8 hours until its next flight.

[fazon]

Most airlines don't do that.

Anyways, AM is based on a 24 hour timetable, real life is flexible. In AM, we can only have a .5 frequency (with any plane, other than an SST I believe) with a Dubai - LA flight.

[pseudoswede]

Yes, also notice that EK cannot do that round-trip in 24 hours. I imagine that plane also does a short hop to somewhere nearby (i.e., DXB-DOH, DXB-KWI, DXB-RUH).

[StephenM]

In theory yes there should be time set aside for maintenance of aircraft. Its something I would like to see in the game as it would help in terms of game pace. But its not something that can easily be implemented for currently running worlds.

[Flybynight747]

I love this game exactly the way it is at present, the main addition I would like to see implemented is the much mooted HOTSWAP.

There is another online Airline management game I believe that has the 'delay' feature built into it.

I HATE THAT OTHER GAME and I am a true fan of THIS game.
I tell all my friends about AM and recommend it ALL the time over all others.

I play in quite a few Worlds here and soon intend to start my OWN world.
I pay to play, buy tokens and spend many enjoyable hours play every week.
I find the relatively simplicity of this game its main attraction.

Personally, if this delay idea was implemented I would leave the game.

JAY AIR   ID # 30312

[iranair777]

how about aircraft out of service for a while every few months as per the real life heavy checks?

[CHR]

If planes went out of service, then theoretically, your competition should get a boost to their LF for a while, as well as a loss in profit for you. Maybe the maintenance fees could be made larger to account for the hire of another aircraft to do the route. After all, airlines don't drop any routes because they are fixing planes, they just use surplus planes.
It may also be possible to implement something allowing the simulation of having spare planes; being able to allocate planes to cover for others - resulting in a different income during the maintenance period. But I think that would start to make things too complicated.

[Cheung Airlines]

how about aircraft out of service for a while every few months as per the real life heavy checks?

Maybe we can hook the MX time with the aircraft price. And Automatically leases a replacement (from the market, if possible. If not, lease it directly from the manufacturer @ *certain percentage of the plane's price, but higher than the market price*)

[StephenM]

Personally, if this delay idea was implemented I would leave the game.

Glad to hear some overall positive feedback on the game. On your last point its simply me airing an idea. Its not currently possible to implement it, if it was to be implemented it would be a current world "go-forward" basis. That means only new worlds would have the change. The function of the delay as you are calling it would be two fold.

First it would reflect real world downtime averaged out lets say over a month or a year and worked out as a percentage of total flight time. So lets say for arguments sakes that the total maintenance downtime came to 10% of flight time for planes, that would mean that you could fly your planes for 21.5hrs a day and the remainder would be maintenance time, (10% of 21.5 = 2.2, 21.5+2.2 = 23.7). Overall it would be a minor inconvenience, but would reflect real world operations.

Second it would help  the game "pace". By making the game slightly more difficult in terms of max hours on an aircraft coming down it would mean people could not expand as fast, and thus keep a long running game slightly more challenging. For the majority of users having a challenge in the game makes them play more, we know from experience that if money can be made too quickly the majority of the user base would get bored.

The system, if it was ever to be introduced would be automated and the user would not be required to do any additional work.

In terms of taking planes out of service for maintenance, I'd be in favour of a hotswap powered automatic aircraft switch. So additional aircraft would be available in the fleet to cover maintenance, and as maintenance of an aircraft comes up, it is automatically swapped out, again with little input from the user. If that type system was added it may have potential as a premium feature however.

Just to conclude, its good to have some structured debate on what shape maintenance should take within AM. The majority of items above will not be implemented in the near future but ideas can be generated that will be considered at a later date.