So I am new to AirlineSim but I understand the basics of the game. So I recently started an Airline called “Mediteraneo Aeree” in the Domination V server. My hub is in Rome (the larger Airport) and I am operating 5 international routes and 2 regional routes. My biggest “problem” routes are to Athens and Istanbul. When I started my Airline I chose to activate my flight plan for all airplanes in 3 days so all of my planes are taking off tomorrow. For the first two days I noticed that most of my routes were barely being booked. So I started to lower prices on the routes where I was barely getting any bookings. I also started to sign Interlining contracts with airlines who have high market share in Istanbul, Madrid and Athens to try to get more passengers. For Madrid this strategy worked, however for Athens it slightly increased my passenger numbers and for Istanbul things remained abysmal. My problems here are clearly caused by competitor airlines especially Istanbul which has a lot of Rome to Istanbul routes (and vice versa).
So how do I deal with all of my competitors here? Are there any other strategies except lowering prices, offering better service and signing interlining contracts?
Welcome to the community and forums!
I will start by saying two things that might influence the situation we are in.
-
Domination is a special server with some special rules, notably, that you have less traffic right limitations. For you, this means that you have less of a shield that in other worlds the rights naturally cause. So anyone can go and open a sub in Fiumicino and run your routes at any point.
-
Europe is far from an ideal place for a beginner, precisely because of the competition it faces, even in another server with “normal” traffic right rules.
Regardless, you can use the ORS and Market Analysis panels to try and see why you are losing these battles.
As you might or might not know, the game books flights once a day for an airport, and does so through the ORS system, which assigns a combination of 1 to 3 segments a score based on various input factors of each flight independently and of the wider combination. I will not give you everything, but factors that can increase an ORS score include better suited seats or service, higher staffing levels and salaries, and faster travel times. Price impacts the price performance ratio, which is important for the combination aspect. The other factors raise the score of an individual segment.
Market Analysis will place side by side the inventories of your airline and those of the others, where you can compare the amount of flights and aircraft types (in a way, capacities), classes offered, and prices. Note that you’ll only see competition vacancies of up to 9 - this is by design and reflects the old inventory systems in use across most GDS. But you can see whether there’s 30 flights a day for a segment that might not merit it. Granted, this works with a bit of intuition from the user.
Let the people here know if you have any other concerns or specific questions about your stuff. Most of us are helpful and nice.
Thank you so much for the advice! My only other question is which region is best for beginners?
That depends. It is not a region, but rather a small to medium size market in which you are not too obliterated, and can grasp concepts that one cannot simply read, and has to experience. Such as the very competition you have, demand and how that changes and impacts, aircraft scheduling, etc. Once you feel you grasp the game and especially that you can stand your ground against the competition, then you are more than welcome to try the large markets with huge airlines and opportunities for growth: US, EU, and China. That is not to say you cannot succeed as a beginner in these markets - it just might be harder to survive and thrive.
I would recommend building a transfer hub for beginners. From my experience starting up as a beginner, it is by far the easiest way to establish your footing in a game world. This is not to say that you can’t start by transporting O/D passengers, but I’m most familiar with doing waves out of mega hubs so here we go, things you should consider while choosing a strategy.
-
Geographical Location
An advantageous location is key to building a successful hub, for instance, the US northeast is perfect for managing US - Europe traffic, US west coast airports connect east coast to Hawaii, Tokyo and Seoul are great hubs if you wish to do North America - Asia Pacific. You get the idea. -
Demand
Although we don’t put as much emphasis on demand when focusing on transfers, do think about if you can consistently sell at least one leg of your transfer portfolio, it makes things a lot easier. Consider doing US to Europe transfer in Boston, because there is a high demand for transcontinental flight between Boston and the west coast, you get to schedule more transcontinental flights and provide more connectivity for your European flights. -
Waves
6hr and 8hr waves are the most common because you divide one day into 4 waves and 3 waves respectively. It is wise to check the slot situation when doing wave planning, you don’t want to hurt your potential for development because your wave times clashed with someone else’s. -
Friendly Fire
As the game progresses and you decide to set up more hubs, consider what traffic you wish to direct through which hub and try to avoid overlaps. It is already hard to compete with other players, having two of your own hubs competing for the same type of traffic only makes it harder.
Well said SparkAirways!
In addition, for me, interlining was huge. Interlining adds quite a few employees to your payroll but I was getting more than enough interlining passengers to more than compensate for their salaries. And by sharing the traffic, I find it a friendlier game.
As always, your mileage may vary.