Asian Airways (A45) was started on the 7th August (8th Taiwan time) 2015 based in Taiwan with the first flights departing on the 9th. We see a market gap for a carrier offering international and domestic services based and focused in the empty hub usually full. We started with a fleet of 4 737-800 HGW(winglets) and 3 767-300ERs. The 737's have a configuration of (Y144, C10) whilst the 767 have a configuration of (Y161, C42, F4). Within the first week, we are operating with a good load factor of 83% and our wide bodies are filling up with a profit on all routes and the need for a 4th 767.
We need strong partners flying into Taiwan so we can fill up our international flights. Currently flights to Japan and Prague are struggling to get full whilst the others are, so please feel free to IL. Our waves our 06:00,14:00,22:00 with a 01:15 transfer time. These times are both in UTC and Taiwan time.
Our next step is to acquire more 737's trying to bring the fleet up to 10 737's and 7 767's before opening a subsidy called 'Asian Regional' using prop aircraft to smaller airports domestically and in the Asian region. Then more far away long haul destinations can be reached.
We have acquired a fourth 767-300ER. This aircraft will fly- TPE-KHH-HKG-KHH-TPE-MFM-TPE. Our new focus hub of KHH will offer direct flights to the south of Taiwan. The aircraft is stationed in Taiwan and has checks at Taiwan and Hong Kong every day. The crew of this aircraft have a 13hour shift based in TPE.
Just as a notice; the 737-800 has a very bad performance in AS and the 737-800HGW (Winglets) is even worse, I would personally not use them. Ofcource they might be good if you find them at a low price but if and when the fuel prices rise they will be even more useless. I would suggest you using the A320Es.
Also in all your airlines you try to go long haul VERY quickly which in legacy worlds will be quite bad. Those money can be used bettre to expand on routes under 3000km.
738s are OK on very short hops (under 1000 km) using BGW version, and with the low fuel. Under such circumstances the per-trip cost is just slightly higher than A320. But with higher fuel, all 738s should go back to lessor.
I find the 737-800's OK. I won't swap them but will try others in the future. The 767's are doing great on flights over 500KM but I do have to shoot up prices in domestic routes. The 737's cost 95,000 AS$ a week in leasing compared to the other game worlds and the 767's around 60,000AS$. Long haul is just an experiment which will be terminated if LHR receives a loss. Japan is now profitable after an IL with 'Air Okinawa' and Kaoshuing is very popular with flights to HKG filling up, even with connecting passengers to TPE.
Once I have 10 737's and 7 767's, domestic flights and regional flights will operate under a regional carrier to smaller airports.
I find Boeings better than (new) Airbus especially the smaller ones such as the A318 which is extremely unprofitable. The big 737's are good as well as a A320. I can get a profit on a 45% load factor on my 738's and when I used A320's on previous game worlds but not with smaller aircraft.
We have now changed the schedule of our 767 which was for long haul. Now it operates to Manila and fills the schedule gaps of the HKG flights. Also it flies from KHH to MFM 4 times a week adding capacity at the focus city.
Now received another 737-800 HGW (winglets) to serve SGN, CAN (12 weekly now), MZG. Also have 3 weekly flights to ISG now with one 737 and two 767. Next week is a 737 before going to have an IPO for 2 737's and one 767 as well as a regional start up.
We have now created a regional subsidy called Asian Regional offering regional flights from both TPE and KHH. We use Embraer 190 and Dash 8 Q300 serving one bar airports in Taiwan as well as bigger ones in addition to smaller airports around Asia. All Asian Regional aircraft has 3 classes of service and have the same pricing as Asian Airways flights. Both of our airlines as well as the main holding have now formed the Asian Group, an alliance which means we can look at our performence as a group.
It works fine. They do fill up and one first class passenger makes a profit. My strategy is to focus on the upper classes as they make more revenue. My new 737-900ER aircraft offer 3 classes as well as 767 and all of Asian Regional's fleet. On Asian Regional if I have a load of more than 35% I make a profit because of the focus on upper classes. I loose money on economy but make money on C,F.
Asian Airways has received new 737-900ER HGW aircraft offering a longer range. It has a higher amount of C and a new F class in comparison to the 800 series and can be found on flights to PUS,KHI,SHA,HKG,CAN. More of these aircraft are to be acquired providing medium haul routes.
I’m not saying only having economy class. You can add more business class seats on your flights if they are able to be fully booked. In that case, you won’t need extra flight attendant in the first class . You may have one flight attendant covering the whole business class. Also, first class seat takes more space than the business one. Instead of having three or four first class seats, you can put more business seats or more space per seat
I also find first class to not be good return on investment, especially on the legacy servers, where the same space being occupied by F class can give you better revenue using business class seats. Also during AGEX crisis, F class seems to be hardest hit by the lower demand. Now on the other hand, because not many use F class, there might be certain market opportunities in it. But using F on regiojets and props is just waste. You can use F class on just one leg (e.g. A-B ) and capture the whole first class demand on A-B-C because the F class arriving on A-B will downgrade to C class if F class is not available on B-C. So if you wish, use F class on larger aircraft such as 739 or A321, and long haul aircraft, but not on small aircraft.
We have 4 3 class 737-400HGW 3 of which are based at TPE and one at our new base KNH. These whilst old offer profit on flights even with a light load and we aim to have 10 of these aircraft in a month. 6 in TPE, 3 in KNH, 2 in KHH.
We have established a 2 aircraft base at KNH which has one regional Dash 8 and one mainline 737-400. We aim to provide key international and domestic destinations from most Taiwan airports. We are the largest airline at KNH and the Asian group is competing with republican express for second place. We however have a more broader network and use more premium configuration.
By the end of september we aim to have two long haul routes with a 767. We think Europe would be a good option as there are a few good airlines we can IL with as well as a selection of good airports that can support the demand. We will keep the same configuration as our mainline aircraft have good ratings as well as all of our mainline aircraft have been installed with PTVs with AVOD in all classes.