Basic Q's then I'm done

[sobelair]

@ToiletDuck

1. What do you find is your best means to start a business? I know the Q400 is about as good as it gets…

Hi,

there is no such thing as the best plane. I have a few rules of thumb that work for me…

• I don’t use a turboprop if I can fill a regional jet, and I don’t use a regional jet if I can fill a narrow body;

• but I avoid using my 737’s on very short routes because their profit margin drops too much;

• and I avoid using my Dashes on routes with heavy competition: with the same seats and service, Dashes get a lower rating than regional jets and narrow bodies.

2. Can you hit multiple airports with one plane like Southwest airlines does in real life? IE Could you go from Houston to Tulsa, then Midland, Then back to houston so it’d increase load factors or do they always stay basic leg to leg?

You can schedule your flights any way you like. Well, as long as the plane arrives on sunday evening where it has to leave on monday morning.

3. What kind of service levels do you aim for on your flights? Where is the line really drawn with the pax. I know they want more than your average person but should it be maxed out? What type of seating do you use? Do you go ECO+ which I think is about 52 seats or so? How much do you bump your price when you do that?

AS passengers check value for money. Cheap service and cheap prices will get you a high ORS rating. Expensive service and expensive prices will also get you a high rating. And high ratings get you more passengers in a competitive market. As long as there are more passengers than seats in our planes, you can charge them through the nose. If there are more seats than passengers, your ORS rating becomes more important and you may have to lower your prices.

I use EcoPlus and charge default price plus 30%. If I used economy seats (not standard seats) and charged default prices, my profit margin and my ORS rating would be fairly similar. But I like running an oldfashioned flag carrier

4. When you’re first starting out how much capital do you keep in reserve? If you get the Q’s and figure about a mil a piece plus the 100k per month lease is $3mil enough to spare? Should it be $5mil.

I leased planes until I ran out of money. That means I ended up with less than one million dollar. But hey… 200.000 dollar will pay the first salaries. The planes have only flown four days when you have to pay the first lease, but another few hundred thousands should cover for that. If you need more than one million, your planes have flown half empty, your prices were too low, or you changed the cabin configuration several times

Jan