Strategy for starting off

czhang · **on:** July 09, 2008, 11:38:59 am

Normally I would play it slowly and wait for my money to build up - that's worked in the past for me. However, this time, I seem to be stuck. I managed to buy a cheap Pilatus after I used up all the hours on my starting a/c (i'm in W8) but with all the gate costs, I'm losing 40-50k a month! So what are your strategies, and what is the best way to start off an airline?

edit: I also ordered another plane but can't pay for it because whenever I log on I'm 1-2m in the red - I did have the money to purchase when I ordered through a broker (dex brokerage to save money lol) but now I don't

Kaz · **Reply #1 on:** July 09, 2008, 11:51:35 am

I think that the start strategies depend on which airport you're starting from.
For instance, I started in Vilnius International and since there weren't any departures there I could easily begin flying routes to major airports and this way make a lot of cash. On the other hand, if I had started in Paris Charles de Gaulle I don't think I could have managed all the competition (although it's nice to have a base there).

czhang · **Reply #2 on:** July 09, 2008, 11:59:53 am

Hmm...maybe I shouldn't have started at BOS

the east coast market was already very crowded when I came

blue25 · **Reply #3 on:** July 09, 2008, 01:21:02 pm

You have to go to a place with a lot of competition, but fly longer ranged flights. :wink:
If you were out of BOS, you could do BOS-MSP.

czhang · **Reply #4 on:** July 09, 2008, 01:26:07 pm

Actually I am doing bos-msp - it makes about 28k, my most profitable route yet

lol
The problem is that I'm finding profits from routes to larger airports are abysmal - bos-ord, yyz, yul, etc all yield around 6k per route. I ditched yyz and yul to try out iad bwi and ord but now it won't let me rent anything :oops: (you can see ord wasn't much of a success)

Aerobat · **Reply #5 on:** July 09, 2008, 05:13:37 pm

wow some really low profits what plane are you using for these routes

maybe try 1 million down airports that are 500nm range from your hub i did something like that out of Warsaw (8-9 mil) Worked quite well expand fast to flying to larger airport e.g Heathrow that are very profitable but it gives me the **** maintaining my routes everyday because of competition.

cyon20 · **Reply #6 on:** July 09, 2008, 10:53:22 pm

just fly to airports that are close to you and cost $50,000. This will really help you at the end of the month. When you're pricing your routes, price at the highest possible with 100%loadfactor so you can get a lot of money from that route. Don't worry about your competition for now. Your main focus is getting your DOP up fast. When you first start off in the game, they give you 2 gates at your starting city. Return one if you can't fill both gates up. This way, you wont lose so much money at the end of the month. Another thing is, put your food/snacks/drinks on high prices because this goes towards your DOP also.

Hope this works for you. It did for me!

czhang · **Reply #7 on:** July 10, 2008, 02:49:28 am

well I'm already 6 months to a year (game time) in so the gate suggestion won't work. I'll try your suggestion when I get enough money to rent another gate lol but I don't think it is possible losing 800-900k a month lol.

XeniaAirways · **Reply #8 on:** July 10, 2008, 11:46:23 pm

for united states, i usually choose an airport that's CLOSE to the coast but is not too busy (i've been hubbing in cincinnati... though if you come in it'll be difficult to start cuz i've scoured out all the cheap gates that are in range for me). look for a gate that costs maybe 150k-250k a month for your base that's within 300-400 nm from the coast where all the big cities are.

start off by flying to regional airports with more than 700k passengers using smaller, more fuel efficient aircraft. as u accumulate cash then u can begin to fly to the major airports and eventually build hubs there.

Zero-G · **Reply #9 on:** July 11, 2008, 01:40:49 am

You can rent gates with negative cash, you just go deeper indebt... you can't buy planes, build gates, or lease... so rent like 5 CLOSE gates to your home city and max out your plane with 1x frequency dont use 1.5 or higher frequencys to start...

Quote from: "czhang"

well I'm already 6 months to a year (game time) in so the gate suggestion won't work. I'll try your suggestion when I get enough money to rent another gate lol but I don't think it is possible losing 800-900k a month lol.

Cheung Airlines · **Reply #10 on:** July 11, 2008, 03:30:04 am

If you find yourself based in a saturated base, try some small airports like when youre at the end of the game

czhang · **Reply #11 on:** July 11, 2008, 03:32:54 am

Quote from: "Zero-G"

You can rent gates with negative cash, you just go deeper indebt... you can't buy planes, build gates, or lease... so rent like 5 CLOSE gates to your home city and max out your plane with 1x frequency dont use 1.5 or higher frequencys to start...

Quote from: "czhang"
well I'm already 6 months to a year (game time) in so the gate suggestion won't work. I'll try your suggestion when I get enough money to rent another gate lol but I don't think it is possible losing 800-900k a month lol.

Not if you're 1 or 2 million in the red. I did manage to rent gates after I was 800k in the red and managed to rent until around 1.8m in the red. I managed to start a few routes each making ~10k each. My DOP is about 135k now. Don't worry, this is my third round of AM so I don't do multiple frequencies (I was actually quite pissed off as these people in the 80's round before multiworlds).

Cheung Airlines · **Reply #12 on:** July 11, 2008, 03:40:14 am

Oh.. That 80's round...
I was impressed by Lusitana Oriente's massive MOP / DOP. But strangely, he uses HS-748Srs 2B/2A on some routes to China. Then I simply buy loads of ATR-42 and started HKG / SZX - ME /West Asia routes.

czhang · **Reply #13 on:** July 11, 2008, 02:46:28 pm

Quote from: "Cheung Airlines"

Oh.. That 80's round...
I was impressed by Lusitana Oriente's massive MOP / DOP. But strangely, he uses HS-748Srs 2B/2A on some routes to China. Then I simply buy loads of ATR-42 and started HKG / SZX - ME /West Asia routes.

I actually built up quite a successful airline, also in W4. In the pre-multiworlds 80's round, I started right at the beginning (actually during the 24-hour waiting period before) as I just happened to have discovered AM at that time. I was at SFO and later expanded to BOS. I did find it harder but more profitable on the East Coast (maybe because I have lived in the SF area).

LOT 737-300 · **Reply #14 on:** July 11, 2008, 05:52:00 pm

A lot of the larger, better known airports from real life (LHR/MCO/CDG/HKG/BOS/JFK/ATL/ORD/NRT/FRA/FCO/LAX/SYD, just to name a few) are likely to be very crowded in the game, and in effect, be very hard to operate from due to the amount of players in that market (not to add those from other cities having routes from there.) Typically, you'd be lucky to get enough DOP to cover your monthly costs in such a situation. What you should do is look for markets that are smaller than those, like if you want to do something out of Orlando area (I'm using it as an example since that is the airspace I am most familiar with), instead of looking at MCO, why not look at the secondary up in Sanford, SFB? Typically these smaller airports will go unserved, despite them having what I find to be reasonable passenger numbers.