Does the spacing between flights affect how many passangers will fly the airline?
Hi,
spacing your flights will not affect the number of bookings on a direct route. It will only affect the number of transfer passengers if the different flights offer connections to more and/or other destinations.
Scenario A)
Imagine there is 300 seats demand, and I have (for example) one flight departing at 00.01 am and other one at 00.02 am, and there is no competition on the route, would I get all 300 seats regadless of (time) spacing between the flights?
If you ignore competition (you are the only player on the server ;-)
Let's say your two planes had each 100 seats and the same ORS rating, and you activated the flight schedule without delay, this is more or less what would happen:
- day zero: planes are waiting until the departing airport calculates its demand.
- first demand calculation: both planes get 100 passengers each on day one. The remaining 100 passengers would book 50 seats for each flight on day two.
- second demand calculation: both flights on day two get an additional 50 bookings and are full. The remaining 200 passengers book a flight on day three and fully book your two planes for that day.
- third demand calculation: your two flights are fully booked three days ahead.
- following days: 200 passengers can book a flight 3 days ahead. All flights for the next three days are fully booked and the remaining 100 passengers decide to take the train to reach their destination :-)
Scenario B )*
There is more demand (300 seats) than supply (260 seats). My comeptitor flies at 08.00 am and I fly at 08.05 am. Would we both fill the planes?
All possible flights in the ORS system for the next 3 days can get bookings. So it doesn't matter if you fly before or after your competitor.
As there is more demand than seats, both planes will probably be fully booked. Mind you... if one flight has an ORS rating of 99, and the other has a rating of 50, the plane with the higher rating should get more bookings. Let's say the daily flight with the higher rating gets 170 passengers, and the other 130 passengers. In this case both flights would be fully booked for today, but the flight with the higher rating will already have 40 bookings for tomorrows flight.
Scenario C)
There is more supply (390 seats) than demand (300 seats). The competitor flies at 01.00 am and 02 am and I fly at 02.00 pm (again just an example). Would the spacing between the flights between me and my competitor have any effect on the demand that I get?
No. When the departure airport calculates its daily demand, it will check all available flights for the next three days. Different ORS ratings will decide how the bookings are shared between you and your competitor.
But... if your flight leaves less than 2 hours before the airport calculates its demand, your flight may not getting any bookings the first day.
Jan