i can't believe so many of you are worried about fuel efficiency?
Have you looked at your fuel costs in your financial statements?
Just making numbers up, but if you have two similar planes and the "smaller" one puts 90% of the seats in the air for 50% of the fuel cost you should come out ahead in the long run.
Once you start factoring in speed, turn time, and total number of miles possible in 24 hours that changes some but it's still not something you can just ignore.
An expensive plane with a low number of seats and a huge fuel load may not be your best option (no matter how fast it is) when planes carrying twice the passengers at half the fuel load at 60% of the speed for less purchase cost are available.
If I recall, I think Stephen said that gas prices are variable for each year. So since this was the 1950s, gas was probebly some 10-20 cents per gallon. If a plane has a fast speed, and a high fuel burn, it might actually benefit the airline, but only if it has a higher amount of seats, you have to remember that the script is written to give faster planes a first dib on pax, so they can hit 100% much easier than lets say a airline with half the speed. But you are right that watching the numbers is a smart idea. Just try to factor in speed, seats and fuelburn (you might find it's actually cheaper than the smaller ones on longer trips). I should also state that when you put a new plane on a route, you might get a higher profit if you charge higher than everyone else, depending on what planes are being used on that route. I have a few routes where I entered in a bit later than everyone else and because I had a faster plane, or one with less seats, it gave me the capability to charge higher fares, unlike the blue game, where all planes ere treated the same, so a Beach 1900D might actually steal over 1000 seats from everyone, unlike here, where it comes down to more factors.
-Just my two cents on fuel burn and how to think out the price.
