A dense seating experiment

Hey all, some interesting updates!

  1. In the last two months, I’ve built a 4000 departure hub at San Francisco (SFO). I’ve started flying A350-900 and 787-9 aircraft – to Asia and Europe. It turns out that I can 100% my long haul flights with dense configurations:

    A350-900
    42 Lie Flat 140 J
    351 Standard Y

    787-9
    35 Lie Flat 140 J
    324 Standard Y

    100% full loads on SFO to HKG, NRT, LHR, AMS, CDG!

  2. I’m also adopting an aggressive expansion strategy. Instead of concentrating on few maintenance types, I’m ordering as many planes as I can – from as many types as possible! I figured that the additional profit from opening new routes would be far greater than the maintenance cost.

    I’ve opened the following maintenance categories:
    Category 1 - A350-900
    Category 2 - A320 - A319, A320, A320neo, A321, A321LR
    Category 3 - 737 - 737-700, 737-800, 737-900
    Category 4 - 787 - 787-9
    Category 5 - CRJ - CRJ 900, CRJ 1000
    Category 6 - EMB - E175, E190, E190E2, E195, E195E2

  3. I’ve used multiple production lines to maximize new plane deliveries per day. It helps me expand faster.

    Airbus (TLS) - A320
    Airbus (XFW) - A319 and A321
    Boeing (RNT) - 737-700
    Boeing (PAE) - 737-800 and 737-900

  4. Some routes are underserved in North America: key trunk routes like ORD-SEA, ORD-SFO, ORD-DTW, ORD-MSP, SFO-HNL, SFO-PHX, and so on. It doesn’t matter how dense my seating is – the planes usually fly full.

I’m sharing because I hope the community can benefit from this! But an aggressive expansion plan like this only works in the places like the U.S. or Europe or China…big markets with lots of possible hub airports.

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Nice. Maybe I will try this someday as well. It gets too easy and boring with large seats and higher prices methods.
(Just for info, what were new changes made in patch? I was not playing AS for quite some time)

To sum it up: the new ORS prevents the use of large seats and ultra high prices. The new ORS has only been rolled out on temporary servers so far. It’s helped me use Slimline HD seats effectively and allowed me to simulate the seating configurations of low-cost carriers.

I did it. Jet9 is now the largest carrier on Yeager III per weekly passengers flown. It will soon be the largest carrier on Yeager III per total passengers flown. If anything, it goes to prove that running an airline with Slimline HD economy seats is doable with the new ORS.

My aggressive expansion strategy has paid off. Even though I have 9 total aircraft types, the speed of my expansion has created enough connecting traffic at hub airports to be highly profitable:

Chicago (ORD) is now at 6.2K departures.
San Francisco (SFO) is now at 4.7K departures.

I’m reaching a point where my Chicago (ORD) operations have nearly maxed out slots. I plan on ordering A350-900 aircraft, configured domestically to meet high transcontinental demand. I significantly expanded international routes. I hope to add those soon!

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Hi, I have question:
At now, AGEX index of Yeager III has been down to 702.
Does it any big influences for Seat Load Factor of Jet9?

Down from 95% in to 92% in the past two weeks. We’re still doing well!

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What is an AGEX index?

Is this a new ORS? From what I remember this would have been impossible.

It is the new ORS. It’s preventing the high-priced “Recliner Shorthaul in economy” model. More realistic in my opinion. There’s even a noticeable difference in J demand on business routes versus leisure routes: ATL-JFK versus ATL-CUN.

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Again really basic knowledge. Did you ever read or watch the tutorials?

Sounds great! @martin Should totally make a permanent world with all the new things.

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@highscore2 what is with the attitude of the people in here ? Simple question. Would it hurt to give a simple answer.

Most if not all of your questions have been answered thousand times before. That’s why even a simple answer can hurt if you post this hundred times. People like yukawa have written a very comprehensive guide - you will find nearly everything in there.

Four letters standing for four words. It’s is a simple answer. You could have given the answer.
Nowhere in the game says that you need to read the manual before you start playing the game.
I play the game as a hobby not something so serious that I will need to read manuals. I do enough of that in real world.

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Search the forum. Best option. Faster solution - search the tutorial.

@AcuWings, the point of this thread is to discuss dense seating configurations. Not about AGEX. Please reserve that conversation for another thread.

What @highscore2 mentioned is usually the best way to find solution for your problems. This game has been online for over eleven years. I have played this game for eight years now. There’s plenty of information residing on the forum about almost every topic imaginable. For everybody – I kindly ask you all keep the conversation to dense seating configurations.

I will continue to update this thread with information about widebodies and hubs. I have plenty of new concepts to think through!

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Hello all! Some new takeaways based on what I’ve learned from Domination, Bleriot, and Yeager!

  1. Slimline HD seating configurations can fail when the hub is heavily contested and does not provide enough connections. For a time, I struggled to maintain load factors in LAX with Slimline HD when competing against two carriers with more weekly flights. In hubs with no competition, Slimline HD works especially well with new aircraft.

  2. Slimline HD works particularly well for A330 and 767 (and Avro/BAe) aircraft operating high-density short and medium haul routes, such as HKG-SIN or LAX-HNL. It allows an extra seat across for both aircraft types. Routes with good cargo demand like ORD-SEA and PDX-LAX help bump up profitability.

  3. Slimline HD will not work on long haul routes. Even JFK-LHR will not fill with Slimline HD in many circumstances, even with the strongest of hubs.

I hope this helps! PM or reply if you have any questions I can answer.

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Love your work! Did you notice a correlation between number of red bars for seat rating and your demand (like 1 red bar didn’t impact it, but 2 or 3 meant you couldn’t fill seats)?

Hello. Up to two red bars were fine, but any more (three or higher) would see a sudden drop in demand! I hope this helps!

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Super interesting info about the Slimline seats. I’ve only used them in HI inter island so I’m gonna play with them on some other -non LH flights on my Es and As. :). ETA: ok so making a change to those small a/c from standard to slimline is pointless… So I’ve modified 2 of my A321LRs… I hate these planes but if this gets them making more $$ then I’m all for it!