Long-haul routes less profitable than short- and medium-hauls?

[kcclieou]

Hi guys,

I am operating a medium-sized airline company in public world #506, based in the US east coast. I found the following very funny:

1. My BOS-ORD route (flown with a Convair 440) with something like 6 or 7 competitors is making more profit than my BOS-SEA route (flown with a Fairchild Hiller F-27F) with zero competition.

2. My BOS-IAH route (flown with a Convair 440) with only about 50% market share is making more profit than my BOS-LAS route (flown with the Fairchild), and LAS is supposed to be bigger than IAH.

3. Each of my three Fairchilds (used to fly domestic long-hauls, as it's the cheapest aircraft with a long enough range and probably more profitable than the slightly larger ones which cost twice as much and consume twice as much fuel) makes a profit of ~$150,000 per day, while my small Aerospatiale N262 makes more than $250,000 each day.

Can anyone tell me if in AM the number of potential passengers on long-hauls is meant to be less than that on short-hauls between airports with a similar number of passengers? It seems to be utterly insane having many airlines flying routes like SFO-OAK or JFK-EWR charging >$600 and all of them can survive.

[CHR]

In short, the longer the flight, the less profitable it is. Although the dollar figure will be more on long flights, it might only be 20% extra, while you spend twice as long flying somewhere. The best strategy is to service near by airports first.

[pilotguy121a]

+1
also when you make long haul flights and your plane can do a full round trip, opt for the .5 frequencey, you can charge more and make more, then create another route with that same plane.

When the time comes as well, the Airbus A319LR plane is very good for routes like this, i made at lease 150k per .5 route, so about 300K per Airbus and multiply that by 20, its not a bad profit.

[convair0990]

Pilot guy,
You are right.
With long-range aircraft like Dc-8, 707 and(in recent years) A-330 and 767, use 0.5 freq in long routes. You make more profit than make 1. freq and you can still make some flights with them, until they have 2, 1 or 0 hours left per day.

[Aristotles]

I am brand new to the game, but I managed to rake in from Warsaw (base) to Beijing Capital International on my Boeing 757-200 around $104,000 on my 0.5 frequency with tickets sold at $600. While my short haul on the same aircraft type from Warsaw to Paris Charles de Gaule to $93,372 on frequency 2 and tickets sold at $150.

[Cheung Airlines]

Try not to use 2x freq. 0.5 and 1 gives you more cash.

Also, short hauls are the most profitbale routes. Get rid of your Beijing route and start doing some networking in Poland should help increasing your DOC