basic ORS
As mentioned, the pax distribution is based on your ORS rating relatively to other airlines' ORS ratings. The higher your rating, the more pax you will get. However, achieving a higher rating requires you to offer better service, which in turn costs money. So, there is an optimum for maximum profit. To find that, is a major task in AS. Again, it will depend on how much time you want to spend on AS. You can do a lot of micromanagement optimizing the different levels on every single route to maximize profits. Personally, I don't do that, as I enjoy real-life as well ;-)
now, what influences the ORS rating? easiest way to find out: once you have flights booked into the system, simply click on "details", then on the tap "flight ratings". It will show you the values associated with that flight.
- the first box gives you the values that are actually being transferred to the ORS. a little more to that later
- second box: well, kinda self-explanatory. all values are for that particular flight and the seating config and on-board service booked in for that particular flight as assigned by you. Terminal is always 2, as you are using the terminal automatically provided by AS. You can build terminals later on, but that is something you can do, if you have hundreds of millions to waste. Dedicated freigher doesn't apply to you and is only important for cargo haul. Image is how your airline is being perceived. Factors there are available in the third box.
- third box shows you the image factors. Those are not based on that particular flight but your overall image calculated out of all your flights' performances. This is something you want to keep up, as it will become harder to change the bigger your airline gets.
One factor here, that you can influence easily is staff mood.
first image booster
When you go to the "staff" page, you can assign salaries. The staff mood will decrease when below country average and increase when above. However, the way up is way longer than the way down. Personally, I pay +30-40% until my staff has 5 green bars, then I lower the salary to slightly above (+5-10$ to have a small buffer). This helps to keep up the image with very little actual monetary afford on your part. the image then improves the ORS rating.
right rating
as mentioned above, you can maximize the ORS rating. It can not exceed 100 (lowest possible is -100, but pax don't book if a connection rating is below 0, which is the rating for public transport and the cut-off point for you). a lot of players go for an ORS rating of 100. Personally, I think, this isn't necessary in most cases. particularly, if you have a lot of transfer pax. Play around with the numbers and see how your bookings behave. You will notice, you can fill a lot of planes even with ratings as low as 1, if the competition is low or you have a lot of transfer pax booking that particular flight. So why spend a lot of money on services not required.
rating of connections
once you have the first flights booked into the system, check your ORS rating for your connections. You will notice, that there will be a rating for each individual leg and a rating for the entire connection. While parts or all legs might be negative, the over-all rating can still be positive, as factors like image play into it. therefor, it can also be the other way around.
pax distribution
we already know that pax distribution is based on the ORS rating. However, when does it take place. Well, every airport has a "demand calculation time" displayed at the airport info page. Demand distribution happens once a day for every airport. At this time, all available connections and their ratings are being compared and pax (originating at this airport ) are being distributed. For advanced scheduling, you might want to keep the demand calculation time at your hub in mind, but it's of very limited importance to you right now.
Since your destinations will have their demand calculation times spread throughout the day, you will see bookings to your flights throughout the day. When it's an airport's time, all pax, including the connections, are being booked.