The Most Profitable Aircraft in AM

[AirbusGuy350]

Wait tll the A380 comes out that will blow away the A20 family and the 737 family except for it costs 300 mill

[MrOrange]

Maybe it will do good on LHR-HND or something, but apart from that I wouldn't ever use the A380. Actually, I wouldn't use it ever in AM, because I think it's ugly. But that's just me.

[XeniaAirways]

I won't even fly a 747, much less an A380.  Yes, the A380 is ugly and the 747 is awesome, but in terms of specs in Airline Mogul, it doesn't make much sense to fly one.  There would be very few routes which I could operate the route successfully... probably only routes between Tokyo Haneda (HND), Los Angeles (LAX), London Heathrow (LHR), Paris Charles de Gaule (CDG), Atlanta Hartsfield (ATL), and Chicago O'Hare (ORD).  The turn time is terrible though, maintenance is through the roof, and you would have to replace these expensive aircraft often just to remain profitable.  Personally, I've never flown anything larger than a Tupolev Tu-114 (200 seats), though I'll be operating Boeing 777s (440 seats) in my current world later on.  I'll see how that turns out.

[Tiger In Training]

I think speed is an under rated factor in AM. Having an aircraft than can do 550knts over a slow prop means it can carry more, up to double in passangers per day. I know this means higher gate costs, but the balance i believe will still be higher.

[kevinaj]

For me the most profitable plane is an A319. 2 of mine make about 500,000 euro a day.

[Rionescu]

For the price of 1 Boeing or Airbus, you could buy 10s of the cheapest 19 seater(I don't remember the name). For me it makes 150-200k going to 50-100k airports. With just ten, which doesn't cost as much as a 737 or a320, you could make over a million.

[Rionescu]

BTW, I would appreciate if someone proves that my logic is flawed because I like big planes I want to use them without knowing that I'm losing mony by doing it.

[CHR]

Very small aircraft do not make as much money per route. This has two problems, firstly, gate rental is the same regardless of aircraft size (which, come to think of it, is not entirely realistic...), so a greater percentage of your money goes into gate rental. This may actually be a considerable cost if you are only using 19 seater aircraft.

More importantly, however, is that you will not have enough time to create and edit that many routes. Once your airline becomes large, you make so much money each day that you could buy far more aircraft than you could put on routes.

If you are making a DOC of 5,000,000 (which isn't that high, about 25 small aircraft, by your profits), that's 120,000,000 per (real life) day (minus expenses). Earning say, 100 million a day could easily buy you 40 small (around 20 seat) aircraft per day (at 2.5 million). That would mean you would be earning 300 million on the next day (having tripled your fleet), allowing you to buy 120 aircraft the next day... and so on.

While this rapid an expansion is probably not going to happen (you will quickly run out of airports to fly to), you can see the way a problem will emerge. The larger aircraft, costing say 50 million each, might earn 300-500 k per day for the same amount of effort (same number of routes) as it takes to earn 150 k on a small aircraft.

Early on, when you have little money, it is best to buy small planes, but soon you will want to buy more expensive planes to make more money.

[Rionescu]

Thank you, I appreciate the advise.

[Cheung Airlines]

Very small aircraft do not make as much money per route. This has two problems, firstly, gate rental is the same regardless of aircraft size (which, come to think of it, is not entirely realistic...), so a greater percentage of your money goes into gate rental. This may actually be a considerable cost if you are only using 19 seater aircraft.

More importantly, however, is that you will not have enough time to create and edit that many routes. Once your airline becomes large, you make so much money each day that you could buy far more aircraft than you could put on routes.

If you are making a DOC of 5,000,000 (which isn't that high, about 25 small aircraft, by your profits), that's 120,000,000 per (real life) day (minus expenses). Earning say, 100 million a day could easily buy you 40 small (around 20 seat) aircraft per day (at 2.5 million). That would mean you would be earning 300 million on the next day (having tripled your fleet), allowing you to buy 120 aircraft the next day... and so on.

While this rapid an expansion is probably not going to happen (you will quickly run out of airports to fly to), you can see the way a problem will emerge. The larger aircraft, costing say 50 million each, might earn 300-500 k per day for the same amount of effort (same number of routes) as it takes to earn 150 k on a small aircraft.

Early on, when you have little money, it is best to buy small planes, but soon you will want to buy more expensive planes to make more money.

Generally, you the upper limit for a self-owned plane is ~150m or ~190 seats. Depends on which one comes first. I'll not recommend people to buy A-321s coz its too large for a decent profit

[CHR]

You can use larger planes like the A321 on routes with lots of competition (i.e. routes to big airports), as the fare has often been lowered enough that you can charge roughly the same amount as the other airlines despite operating a large plane.

[AlaskaAir77]

If you mean a profit/cost ratio, then one of the 70-pax turbo props are probably at the top of the list. The most profitable jet is probably the F70.

I strongely dislike fokker 70s, because they do not have a good range.

Go for the dash-8-400s or atr-72s if you need a small, cheap plane for Base -> 50,000 value routes..for the airbus/boeing make the same amount of money.

[Kerdmass]

If you mean a profit/cost ratio, then one of the 70-pax turbo props are probably at the top of the list. The most profitable jet is probably the F70.

I strongely dislike fokker 70s, because they do not have a good range.

Go for the dash-8-400s or atr-72s if you need a small, cheap plane for Base -> 50,000 value routes..for the airbus/boeing make the same amount of money.

Pick the long range engine varient then.  ~2100nm isn't too even if it's a modest price increase from the base Fok70

[Mporcel]

There isn´t such a thing. Every route has a most profitable aircraft and iis not the same for every route. It really depends on where your hub is located, what airports you are planning on flying into (number of passengers) distance and route potential (Excelent, Very Good, Good) and also look at the competition on the routes. Sometimes a Fokker Fellowship aircraft with 70 plus seats gives you more profit than an Airbus A319 with 130 seats plus. The more you fly your aircraft usually yields out higher profit. Example: A 319 flying 3 routes with average earning of 80,000 per route=$240.000 compared to a Fokker flying 6 routes with average earning of 70,000 per route=$420.000.

[vivtho]

My personal strategy is to fly 4 types of aircraft

• Small: with <100 seats for airports with less than 50000 pax
• Mid-Size: with 150-200 seats for airports bigger than 50000 pax
• Large: with 350+ seats for long intercontinental routes
• Supersonics: with 120-160 seats for routes longer than 1000nm and with high competition.  This way even if the income per flight is less, the higher speed of the aircraft allows me to fly the same aircraft on 2-3 routes in the same amount of time

Right now, I'm flying a combination of CRJ-100LRs, RomBAC 1-11-495s, A320s, A330s and Tu-144Ds.  The CRJs are being gradually replaced by 1-11s.

• Best A320 gives me about 671000/day. Most of them give me between 400000-550000.
• Best A330 give me about 350000/day.  I feel this is way too low and am looking for a better alternative.
• Best CRJ gives about 450000/day, average is around 300000
• Best 1-11 gives me around 536000/day, average is 350000-400000
• Best Tu-144D gives me around 540000/day, average is around 500000

My personal strategy is to concentrate on long & thin routes, so I invest in aircraft that are not necessarily the biggest in size, but have long range and lower fuel consumption.