Long Haul?

[Agent Orange]

I am looking into doing LongHaul, what aircraft should I be doing it with? I am in the year 2003. I have tried the 747-400, but they took so much fuel, I just scrapped them in favor of 777-200ERs. Should I have gone with Airbus A340s or what?

[Agent Orange]

I am going to test if long haul even can make money. Here is what I will do, I just joined a server that just started today. I am spaming my routes and working towards nothing but my first longhaul aircraft. I will then delete all my routes, and sell the aircraft. Make my "Long haul" Routes, and see if I can make any money.


Now how long should a route be to be considered long haul?
It is the year 2000 so all the best aircraft are pretty much available so which one should I choose?
                 (For aircraft I was thinking 767-200/300 ER, or A340s)

My base is in ATL, any routes you guys can suggest. 

[Virgin Serbia]

Don't try the A340. Try the A330-200 or 767-200ER.

[Agent Orange]

K, I will try the 767-200ER, should i get one or two before trying my adventure?

[Virgin Serbia]

K, I will try the 767-200ER, should i get one or two before trying my adventure?

Get 5 or more longhaul planes before you shut down the rest of your routes. Each 767 will earn about 200k - 300k if you do it well.

[Agent Orange]

I don't want to run both at the same time, because i want to track cost of having the larger aircraft too. So I will wait till I have two, then I will sell my airbuses which will get me close to 3.

[pseudoswede]

Then you'll be waiting appox. 150 game days for your next 762ER.... By then, you'll just have to swap since maintenance costs will be sky-high on the other three.

[Agent Orange]

I plan on buying all three at the exact same time, forgot to say that. I plan on selling the airbuses at about 7mil under there worth which will still bring 40 mil a piece that is just over what I would need for another 767.

[pseudoswede]

Are you in a private world? Then the odds that you'll be selling your planes (at all) are slim to none.  It's only marginally better in a public world (they are so unsaturated that everyone makes enough money to buy their own planes).

So when you get your three aircraft, your best-case scenario is that you'll be making 300-350k per aircraft, that leaves you with a DOC of 900k-1.05M. Given that it costs approximately 120M to purchase a new B762ER, you will have to wait 114-133 game days (4.5-5.5 game months) to purchase your next plane. This does not even include the gate rental costs or the (increasing) maintenance fees being paid. So, in reality, it might be 8 game months (9 months if it takes 72 days to receive your plane--I can't remember) before you have your next aircraft.

[Agent Orange]

Well we will see how it goes. Any route ideas?

[1993matias]

Biggest airports to begin with. So from ATL go to London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Beijing. Use premium gate search to filter out destinations out of range. Good luck!

[pseudoswede]

To maximize profit on these first few planes, you need to do only one TATL, 0.5-freq flight. The use the rest of the hours to fly to large, nearby domestic airports. This could bump your DOC up to 500-700k per plane.

[1993matias]

But the idea is to run profit entirely from intercontinental routes

[Virgin Serbia]

Biggest airports to begin with. So from ATL go to London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Beijing. Use premium gate search to filter out destinations out of range. Good luck!

No, not necesarily. Routes to these airports may be extremely competitive, so prices drop. Go for the bigger airports, but avoid heavy competition if possible. Flying JFK-Moscow as the only airline can be much more profitable than flring JFK-Heathrow along with 10 other airlines.

I suggest you fly medium range routes at 0.5 frequency, avoid longer routes. Thus you will be able to fly 2 x 0.5 medium range routes on most planes, maximizing profit. Also, try to earn enough daily profit, so that you pay back the plane after 1, or 1.5 years. On a 767-200ER, I found this to balance at about €150-€200.000 if I'm not mistaken, but you need to make the calculations yourself.

[Agent Orange]

Thanks for the help so far guys , I have 252 million saved up so far so over half way to where I need to be.