Quick question to people that run cargo airlines:
I need couple of cargo planes for a cargo subsidiary, but I do not see the cargo planes to be available in Aircraft Type Evaluation tool.
I can only find the convertible (C) aircraft, but no "pure cargo aircraft" (F) e.g ATR72F, Antonov 26 / 32, etc.
So...how can I evaluate different planes for cargo business?
Currently there is no possibility to evaluate cargo planes in the tool.
You would have to go to the performance tool and do the calculations yourself.
Thx for the suggestion. But I see one big problem with this ... there is no way to see maintenance costs with the performance tool.
How can I see how much would I pay for maintenance? I don't think it's a wise business decision to pick up a plane blindly without knowing its maintenance cost.
Perhaps, a bit of trial and error
Perhaps, a bit of trial and error
I know I can "approximate" maintenance cost for some aircraft, e .g. ATR72-500F could be approximated by ATR72-500 pax, or B737-700C could be approximated by 737-700 pax, but there are some planes that simply do not have a passenger counterpart to at least try to approximate maintenance cost.
Given the fact that cargo business is not very profitable ad works with very thin margins (my test run for 737-300C runs with full load and is currently losing 500 to 800 AS$ per flight, with 50% on top of default cargo prices), given this, I do not think there is much space for trial and error.
700C is bad, go get a Tu, you would have better result.
While choosing an Tu you should keep in mind maintenance categories and long production cycles.
700C isn't bad, and I would take it over the TU any day...
With cargo, I found that the best way to evaluate the aircraft choice was on fuel burn - in my eyes a cargo operators main bill.
I use the performance tool for this.
The more modern and mainline the aircraft type, the better, hence my choice of 700C over the TU family. You can also get them a hell of alot quicker of the production line. Image (aircraft age) has a small eliminate to it, but I take each route individually, and find the aircraft that fits.
Short haul, I find the bigger the aircraft, the better too. ATR family for example, the ATR42F you will fill easily, but have to charge a fortune for each CU making it look unattractive in ORS. The same for the 737-300 family of freighters. Taking the ATR72F or the 737-700C means you can charge less, look better in ORS and still make profit. To be fair, if you cant fill a ATR72 then a route really isnt worth serving anyway....IMO
Long haul, an aircraft with middle of the range capacity, and modern is the key. AGEX hit me hard with the turn of the market last time, and couldnt fill my 777/747Fs anymore. I dropped to the 767F and filled them easily and as the aircraft is very versatile, still made profit. Taking older versions such as MD family work ok if you can buy them outright. Leasing them you'll struggle unless its a key trunk route from a mega hub. But even then, you wont get as much from the aircraft due to its age...