Quite new to Airlinesim and several failures so far!
I have read several threads concerning demand but am still not clear how this is calculated between two airports. I used flighstats to look at routes flown from real airports and created routes to match. However several of my routes had few passengers even though I was the only airline flying it.
Where does one go in the sim to find out how many passengers want to fly on a new route? If these figures aren't available in the sim, how would I know if passengers want to fly it and therefore what type of aircraft would be required? is one left to try new routes with varying aircraft until one is profitable?
Thanks
You can not see the demand in AS .... It depends in the beginning where you start. Do you have competition on your hub? How many flights are there on that route already? Did you start on an old server (where you have already established Airlines) or if you start on the very new Server Quimby where you have the best starting conditions at the moment. Also you have to remember that this Game is Hub based. The more connections you offer the better it is and the more passengers you get. Also don't use big aircrafts especially on the older servers you have to start with dash's, ATR's, CRJ or max E-Jets ..... otherwise you will not be able to fill the planes. If you give us the Airline Name and Server we can give you better advice ...
I scout out new routes with a CRJ700. It's small enough to not be a pain to fill, but big enough where it isn't a moneypit to operate. Nobody will fly your route if you have crappy service (I've seen routes where a CONNECTION from a great quality airline was ranked above a direct flight in the ORS). Make sure you use decent seats, good meal service, good pricing, etc. The ORS is your friend. Once the route shows up, go into the Online Reservation System to see the rating of your flight.
I am on the Croydon server with name Euro Commuter. I made a hash with this airline but trying to recover!
I have started at an airport where connections aren't possible.
I think a lot of the reason new people have difficultly in AS is that the point to point demand calculations make little sense (and in my opinion are unrealistic). It unreasonably favors connections. This is why it is difficult to understand why flights in between airports, even with no competition and with medium to large sized airports, can get little traffic.
I won’t get into the details of this because AS won’t tell us why or how they calculate demand in this way, but I can tell you how to circumnavigate the issue.
Remember that offering connections is absolutely the best way to get passengers. The more connections you offer the better your chances, if you offer better connections than your competition you should be able to make a profit. Keep in mind that your flight ratings must also be good enough, and your prices should reflect that. Offering good connections is meaningless if your flights have terrible ratings, the passengers will still take the alternative flights/routes.
As BenjaminA330 said, don’t use bigger aircraft until you can fill them. That is why people frequently use smaller aircraft such as Q400, CRJ’s and EMB when starting, and also because the more aircraft they can afford, the more connections are offered, and the better they can do.
I think a lot of the reason new people have difficultly in AS is that the point to point demand calculations make little sense (and in my opinion are unrealistic). It unreasonably favors connections. This is why it is difficult to understand why flights in between airports, even with no competition and with medium to large sized airports, can get little traffic.
I know that I much prefer nonstop flights without connections when I fly...
I know that I much prefer nonstop flights without connections when I fly...
Me too. But I also know a lot of people who would fly HKG-DXB-LHR on EK rather than a non-stop flight on CX...