I observed something really strange and i want to ask if you consider that this is normal ?
I have several daily flights between OTP - CDG. Some of the flights are operated with Airbus A318-100 light and some flights with Bombardier Dash Q400A. On both types the seats are same quality (economy, business advanced, platinum class) and the prices are the same.
While the A318 is flying full (100%) with config 75Y/10C/4F and making a profit of 2202 AS$ the DH4 with config 42Y/8C/3F flies at around 95% loadfactor and has a profit of 2861 AS$.
So i have a big full airplane that makes less profit then an almost full smaller airplane.
In these conditions why would anyone operate the A318 or any other airplane when the DH4 can be used everywhere with unbelievable profit margins ?
The Dash just needs not that much fuel then an A318. Also the Price of a Dash is much cheaper… All this factors make the dash to a "profit wounder" on short Routes. But I wouldn’t use First Class on a short Route… =)
Shortroute up to 2000km, but everybody has his own opinion =) Just calculate how much eco seats would fit in instead of one Firstclass seat…But the cabinconfiguration is your own doing =) And I do it on my way
I agree, which is why I got a truck load of Q400s… Until… I realised I was running short of slots at DXB.
It’s a paradox. The Q400s gave me an awesome margin, that allowed me to expand so quickly. Replacing them is a pain because the speed is so slow, it messes up slots on both origin and destination. but if i did replace them, I could free up to 2/3s of the slots used by those planes and still match capacity (albeit margins will be somewhat lower).
This is a serious flaw in Airline Sim. Who wants to fly in a turboprop? They should not have a 3 bar “popularity with passengers” rating. In Devau, and probably other worlds, they fly routes that are flown by 737 or 738 in real life, and still manage to get pax!!! Aircraft rating should be based on distance and pax volume for a given route. Q400’s have an unfair advantage in AS, which they do not in the real world.
I fly both the 318 and Dash8 on some of my routes and have observed the same. However, I have had it whereby the 318’s fill up very easily, because the Dash8 appears much lower on the ORS. Granted I was sampling them on a 2600m route, but it certainly isnt ideal as far as the ORS is concerned.
To be honest, the majority of the flying public does not look at the aircraft type when buying a ticket. Additionally, in real life a DH-8 (or rather… a Q400…) is actually very comfortable and in many shorter regional routes are interchanged with CR2/7s. Though in the US we do live in a world of the CRJ.
