Any way to "limit" bookings ?

Hi,

Does anyone have any ideas how to solve this problem:

First, my set up.

I have a hub, let's call it MyHub. It is the only place where I have traffic rights, and by itself limited O/D demand to most places. However it is geographically very well placed so I'm trying to do this:

Aa <--> MyHub <--> Ba

Ab <-->MyHub <--> Bb

Where Aa,Ab,Ba and Bb are very large airports with tons of demand. I'd like to transport PAX between them, not so much between MyHub and any of those individually.

So I have well coordinated schedules, such as Aa -->MyHub --> Ba with a short connection at MyHub. The idea is that all PAX from Aa (or Ab etc for that matter) would connect at MyHub to Ba,Bb etc. Not remain at MyHub.

Now the problem is, that before Aa books, I get bookins from my interline partners between a city of theirs and MyHub. This means that up to 40% of PAX on a Aa-->MyHub leg might terminate at MyHub rather than connecting to Ba,Bb,Bc etc. Once Aa books, the flight is fully booked three days into the future.Now the problem is that some the flights from MyHub to Ba,Bb,Bc might now depart at 60% load, since there are not enough PAX coming in on my feeder routes.

There is a lot of demand between the A and B cities (as is demonstrated by the immediate full booked state), and I'd be happy to leave any terminating PAX at MyHub to my competition. Is there any trick that I could pull to make my flights get a low ORS rating for Aa to MyHub while getting a high ORS rating for Aa-->MyHub-->Ba ?

Also one of the reasons this is happening, is the fact that Aa --> MyHub becomes available in ORS about 4-6 hours earlier than the connection MyHub --> Ba. I'd like them to appear in ORS simultaneously, that would also solve the problem.

Thanks for any ideas !

br,

Kruiseri

Is there any trick that I could pull to make my flights get a low ORS rating for Aa to MyHub while getting a high ORS rating for Aa-->MyHub-->Ba?

The cheapest option would be to assign a poor (or even none at all) service level to your first flight while maintaining the normal one for the second flight.

But wouldn’t that also hurt my ORS rating for the whole Aa --> Ba routing ? I need to maintain high rating on that sector.

Some suggestions:

1. Schedule your through flights so that interlining pax gets long layover between transfers.

2. Add flights that do interline good and that terminate at your hub. That may take some load out of your through flights.

3. You could also put lower prices for the flights terminating at your hub while the through flights have a higher price.

Oops, sorry, doubleposting. Please see posting below.

But wouldn't that also hurt my ORS rating for the whole Aa --> Ba routing ? I need to maintain high rating on that sector.

Nope, ORS views each flight individually, so your overall routing won´t be affected.

Okidoki, this is called a hub-and-spoke system, in real life they currently use 7 waves but I do not think airlinesim demand is that smart that you have peak hours around 09:00 and 17:00 and stuff. Normal business people would like to fly overnight and land at around 09:00 so they can get to work immidiately. Just the same for tourists and what not. You get the idea.

So, you should think about how many flights you want to connect, think about how slots will be availible in the future and how intensive you can use your aircraft. But the main idea for a small amount of aircraft is:

Station your aircraft at the spokes overnight

Early morning flight from A/B/C/D to HUB. Make sure they all arrive at… let’s say… 08:00. Your intercontinental flights and continental flights should arrive in this block

08:00 + your minimum connecting time will be your next wave. 

Et voila.. people that want to fly from A to D can go via the hub, they will land at 8, will transfer to the next flight and will leave at lets say 09:15.

Just repeat this pattern… keep in mind that the maximum connecting time of airlinesim is 8 hours… try to make three 8 hour blocks for maximum efficiency, and try to keep in mind that your aircraft will get servicing if it is on the ground for 2 hours.

Simple solution:

If you’re getting Aa–>YourHub filled and not the YourHub–>Ba filled because of bookings from IL partners, just add another Aa–>YourHub at around the same time, or change the plane for a bigger one, leaving the YourHub–>Ba as is.

yeah, I have to agree with the previous speaker: you have more demand than seats on a route? halleluja, go for it  and transport them. :-)