Hello I just started 2 new airlines one is the express and one is the main line to be efficient how can I do the hub and spoke system correctly to ensure maximum efficiency
Here is everything you need to know about scheduling written by Yukawa and taken from here (I suggest you read the whole original topic written by him and not just theese cuts), this guide is so well written and explanatory that even experienced players like me and many others have taken their time to read all of it:
Network Structure (post #10)
network structure is easy; the two extremes being a hub and spoke system and a point-to-point system. p2p is pretty self-explanatory. You simply connect two airports directly and don't really bother with connecting pax. The hub and spoke system means, you connect everything to your hub (later hubs, plural. This is mostly important in larger regions such as the US, the EU, China, etc, where you might want to operate hubs for regional traffic and transfers, unless you want to connect New York with that farm track somewhere in Alaska directly.
It is possible to operate a p2p service in AS, however, as a beginner, I strongly suggest, you use the hub-and-spoke system. Transfer pax will help you to fill your planes and stablize your load factors in case of external changes like new competition, changing economic index, etc. You can still introduce p2p for very popular routes later on.
for a more thorough explanation of hub and spoke, check wikipedia
Scheduling Theory (post #11)
Regarding scheduling, there, too, are two extremes with their own pros and cons, the trade-off being connectivity vs. a/c utilization.
- departure waves
- randomly distributing flights throughout the day
transfer time
every airport has a minimum transfer time. Pax can only transfer to flights that leave no earlier than after the minimum transfer time (plus one minute for rounding, AS works with seconds, but only displays minutes) and no later than eight hours (16 hours on Devau (I think it was Devau) after arrival (arrival, not when the a/c is ready for departure again). Pax that will continue on the same a/c have no minimum transfer time as they just remain seated. Those pax can also remain insight the aircraft and continue travel at non-transfer airports.
departure wave
for an airport with a minimum transfer time of 1 hour, the departure wave structure might look like that:
all a/c arrive at your hub as close to but no later than 10:59am and depart again as close to but no earlier than 12am. This way, all arriving flights offer connections to all departing flights allowing for maximum connectivity. However, you will have to keep a/cs on the ground longer than necessary to actually meet the "hub times" (the arrival and departure times for that wave), leading to a decresed utilization. A/cs only make money when in the air, thou. You will obviously use more than one departure wave, depending on the distances of your destinations. You usually end up with three of four daily primary waves.
Since slots for landing and take-off are a major limitation, you will soon see, that slots best meeting your waves will become sparse. Also, you need available slots at your destinations, as well. This isn't a problem for medium and small destinations, but you can't assume to freely plan your schedule when flying to Atlanta, JFK, Heathrow, etc, if you can fly there at all.
random scheduling
alternatively, you can schedule routes randomly, meaning once an a/c is ready for departure again, you have it depart, maximizing utlization. This way, connectivity suffers as you might just miss a transfer opportunity or only have the next one available 5 hour after arrival at your hub. Since you are not bound to time blocks for your waves, you will not encounter slot use congestions. (you might, if another airline is using departure waves at your airport).
things to keep in mind
- when using departure waves, you can introduce secondary waves, so when there are no slots left for your primary waves, just introduce waves in-between. Since they will be within the eight our max transfer time limit, you will still get some transfer pax between the different waves
- when using random scheduling, don't make it completely random. If you offer at least four daily flights to a destination, space them out evenly over the day, if you have one flight roughly every 6 hours, there will always be a connection to every destination within the eight hour max transfer time, although it might be a longer wait.
- make yourself aware of the geographic situation. Who would even consider transfering at your airport? AS pax only consider connections that are no longer than twice the direct distance between origin and destination. so you might want to consider sorting flights geographically as to offer a better connectivity for traffic from east to west, north to south, etc.
- while transfer times should be as low as possible, you have to consider the over-all travel time. If your direct travel time is 6 hours and three of them are for transfer, that is a very different story than a pax arriving from a 10 hours longhaul flight waiting for a regional connection.
- keep the market situation in mind. if there is no competition offering faster connections, pax will have to use your flights (unless your ORS rating is negative). if there is strong competition, you need every single transfer pax you can get
there are many more ways to optimize scheduling
During Scheduling (post #12)
let's finally schedule some flights. FINALLY!
Open an office
you will need to open an office at the desired destination. Simply go to the airport info page and hit "open office". At this point, there are no costs for that airport. Only when you start flights to/from there, staff will be hired to man that office. Costs are all part of the airline-wide salary calculation.
Scheduling
Go the the scheduling page of the aircraft you want to create a schedule for. Scheduling is rather self-explanatory. Just plan the flights the way it fits your network plan. It will show you, if the flight can be operated in general. If check marks are red, you obviously need to check why. It's usually aircraft performance, night time ban or slot availability. Adjust the scheduling accordingly.
Keep in mind, that "aircraft performance" only evalutes if the aircraft can actually make it from A to B. It does not check if you can operate at full capacity. So, if you are flying at the range limit of your aircraft, the available TOW might be reduced. In that case, you might not be able to actually sell all or any seats due to weight restrictions. This is something you probably already checked when deciding on a/c type. If not all seats can be sold, it happens in a fixed order. First, cargo is left behind, then Y, C and F.
First destinations
regarding your first destinations, I recommend to stick with national, as the competition will be lower or non-existent, depending on the market. Once again, a very good source is wikipedia. For a lot of airports, a list of busiest routes is available. That gives you a good idea where to start. The "pax demand" rating of an airport is also an indicator, but don't assume you will automatically get a full flight just because you connect two 7 bar airports. First of all, competition is bigger the larger the airports, secondly, just because a lot of people travel through, e.g. Atlanta and Caracas, it doesn't mean a lot of people want to go from Atlanta to Caracas.
Also, a good indicator is political and historic ties. You can't transport pax from Cuba to the US (see flight rights and restrictions), but Brazil and the Iberian peninsula have strong ties and thus demand.
A great tool to evaluate your situation is AS RouteMap
Maintenance ratio
On the scheduling page in the upper left corner, there is a display for the maintenance ratio. Everytime your aircraft is on the ground for more than two hours (again, due to rounding 2 hours plus 1 minute to be on the safe side), maintenance will take place, no matter if the aircraft is at your hub or anywhere else. It also does not matter, whether this was a scheduled maintenance break of if a flight got cancelled and the a/c is grounded because of it.
The update to aircraft condition will be displayed once the a/c takes off the next time. At this time, the costs for maintenance will be deducted from your bank account. If no money is available, no maintenance will be conducted.
The maintenance ratio should be as close to but not below 100%. If you go below 100% (which, in rare cases might be a reasonable interim solution), the a/c condition will continously fall until it is below 50%. At this point, the a/c will not depart until enough maintenance could be conducted to get back above 50%. You need to avoid that, as not only do you have to pay compensation to pax for cancelled flights, but also will your a/c most likely not be where you need it to be, so either you cancel the following flights and get the a/c to the right airport, or flights will be cancelled (and compensations paid) until the schedule requires the a/c to be where it got grounded again.
Once done with scheduling, make sure, all flights are displayed in green. Everything in red obviously needs to be checked. If you have already set prices, service profiles and such for the individual routes, you can activate your schedule. There are two options available, listed below.
If you have not yet set the mentioned above, do not activate until you have read the "inventory page"-part further down.
Scheduling an individual aircraft
- maximize a/c utilization (if flying to the same destination again and again gives you a maintenance ratio of 90 or 200%, it's no good)
- having an a/c fly only one route all day long, it is way easier to substitute this a/c for another type if you want to change the capacity
- having an a/c fly east, then west, then east, then west, ... you have perfect "transfer" conditions, as pax can simply remain seated in that a/c and are not subject to the minimum transfer time at your hub
- having an a/c fly only one route can cause problems with hub waves if the times don't fit, respectively the overall time your aircrafts are grounded to meet the hub times is distributed very unevenly, distorting economic performance data (so you got to be careful when interpreting the income-cost sheets of single flights)
- if you plan to not use hub waves but offer a higher frequency, the frequency will depend on the number of a/c used and the trip duration, if you fly only one route with a particular a/c
- some routes simply won't offer enough demand to fill all the trips you might be able to offer with one a/c on that route
Long story short: I don't really bother with that question. I usually start with four daily flights to major national destinations (if there is little competition), two daily flights to medium destinations and one daily flight to small destinations, if I do not know the country (I would not necessarily try bar 3/2 or lower airports at the beginning). Once numbers come in, I increase the frequency and price on those routes, that book full fastly or even right away. how many different a/c are being used for that route only depends on maximizing a/c utilization and your scheduling doctrine.
FYI: you will find, that later on, you might offer one daily flight that is being operated by seven different a/c throughout the week to maximize utilization of the single aircrafts.
Activation of schedule
You can activate "right away" or with a 72 hours delay. "Right away" means the earliest flight booked into the system will depart no earlier than 24 hours from now. This makes the flight available to one booking cycle. The same flight on the next day would obviously get two cylces, etc. If you activate with a 72 hours-delay, all flights would get the maximum of three booking cycles. (some special conditions can reduce those numbers by one, but that's not important at this point. you can find plenty of information on that on the msg board).
Which one to choose depends on whether you expect the flights to book full with one cycle. in competitive markets, that's usually not the case. If there is no competition, chances are good. And worst case scenario, you could still cancel the empty flights. Keep in mind the costs for pax compensation, so accepting the loss from a half full flight might still be preferable to cancelling. Also, you won't be able to fly the return flight, so do the math before cancelling.
This system of pax distribution also requires you to be patient before you decide whether a route is going to work or not. Since only connections that reach their destination within 72 hours are being considered. so if part of the connection is longhaul (either because you operate that or you have an interlining partner that does), they might only become available with the second booking cycle. Also, directly after introcuding a new flight, the potential feeders and connections might have already booked full by other connections. Only beginning with the fourth day, the new flight actually has the full potential of being booked. So don't judge a new flight before that.
Hi,
Actually, a bit of a related question... I have been carefully researching which country to set up my airline. In countries where there is NO unrestricted access, and the country is NOT part of any treaty, am I assuming correctly that international growth will be very limited? Can I/should I for example:
- Open a subsidiary in country B with unrestricted access, to fly to my country A? What if I want to fly from country C and D to my home base in Country A? Can that still be done with the same subsidiary, or do I need to open a subsidiary in each country just to fly C to A, and D to A? The idea, of course, would be that my subsidiary drives international traffic to my domestic network.
- Sign an interlining agreement with airlines already flying to my A from various points in the world, and hope that connecting pax will drive growth. But in that case, it strikes me ill never have opportunities for growth?
- Any other options?
Thanks for the thoughts
1. How many subs do you want to open? Assuming, you have found your hot spot / niche in country A, then you fly to Country B, C, D etc. - what is the problem here? You are allowed to fly from A to B to A, A to C to A etc.
2. Don't understand what you mean with this... Sign ILs with partners who are strong on the either other side of your routes (in B, C, D...) or in A (then they would work as feeder service provider) but to start your airline, just take care yourself on the domestic market and nothing else. Flying internationally (except EU territory) is not recommended at all. Build up your network and domestic routes before you start to even think about flying internationally.
3. many other options which work much better than what you have in mind. You cannot open subs in other countries if they are not investment-open countries. (In fact, you could but you would not have the traffic rights to fly there as traffic rights are set with creation of your holding).
Hi highscore,
Thanks.
- But if I am in Cyprus, then I can't Greece and Rep of Cyprus, say, which is why I was asking.
- Thanks, undersood. Thought that might be best
- And thanks as well.
Cheers
There is no way that you can fly from Cyprus to Greece / Turkey (depending in which Cyprus part you opened your company) as theses flights are forbidden. If you have choosen Cyprus as your country, then it is how it is.
Yup, I see that now, thanks. Thinking of how Iran is opening up (or who knows, maybe North Korea one day), does Airline Sim follow real life? Is there a chance that there may be unrestricted flights between two points if in reality that is happening? Thanks
Hello,
I have a question concerning the hub and spoke system... I've created flight plans such that I have two waves, coming into my hub airport (min transfer is 1 hour). So, I've made sure that all my planes come in at 9.30 am latest, then leave no earlier than 10.30/10.35. Next wave in the afternoon is arrival at 3.30 latest, departure at 4.30 earliest.
If I am currently serving 6 destinations, my understanding is that all passengers should have at least 5 connections (unless they want to go back to the airport they departed from), for whichever of the 2 waves. And yet, when I look at a flight number coming in the morning wave, I notice there are only 2/3 connections within an hour or so (and some more, less interesting ones, around 4 hours +).
Why would this be so? Any thoughts? I would've thought that setting-up the flight plans in such a way would've maximised number of connections.
Thanks,
Are all destinations transfer-enabled?
Are the destinations in the opposite direction of the origin?
If a passenger arrives in Rome from London Heathrow he won’t fly back to Manchester. If your ongoing connections are south east, then your pax will connect.
So make sure, your waves arrive mostly from one direction, and then leave again in the same way (I.e. Arrive from south, continue onward north).
Are the destinations in the opposite direction of the origin?
If a passenger arrives in Rome from London Heathrow he won’t fly back to Manchester. If your ongoing connections are south east, then your pax will connect.
So make sure, your waves arrive mostly from one direction, and then leave again in the same way (I.e. Arrive from south, continue onward north).
Thanks, both.
Highscore, I'm not sure what you mean by destinations being transfered-enabled?
In any case, see attached/below for an illustration (pretty realistic) of my routes. Some flights go East, some West (though majority come from West, depart back West)
Thanks,
as has been pointed out, pax need to be interested to use your airline. on your map, no one would use your hub to go from A/B/C/E to any other of those four. D is basically the only interesting airport for any connection.
Highscore, I'm not sure what you mean by destinations being transfered-enabled?
Basically, the airport needs to allow pax / cargo transfer between flights. Usually, this is the case of larger airports.
You can see the information on the line "Min. transfer time" of the airport info page. If the airport is transfer-enabled, it indicates you the minimum connection time – that is critical to schedule your waves appropriately and let your pax get from one plane to another.
No pax / cargo connection will ever occur in a non-transfer enabled airport, regardless of how perfectly designed your schedule is. :)
he already pointed out the min transfer at his hub.
it is the length of the connection over the direct distance causing the “problems”
as has been pointed out, pax need to be interested to use your airline. on your map, no one would use your hub to go from A/B/C/E to any other of those four. D is basically the only interesting airport for any connection.
he already pointed out the min transfer at his hub.
it is the length of the connection over the direct distance causing the “problems”
Thanks, Yukawa and univ. But given that there is basically no other airport with 'transfer possible' around, I'm pretty much stuck, then, am I not?... Quite a frustrating thing, unless I find a way of doing some Point to Point, maybe, though I'd have to find the right route. International connections would be another option... though perhaps in longer term. What do you suggest?
he already pointed out the min transfer at his hub.
it is the length of the connection over the direct distance causing the “problems”
I'm sure it is!
I was just answering the question ;)
Thanks, Yukawa and univ. But given that there is basically no other airport with 'transfer possible' around, I'm pretty much stuck, then, am I not?... Quite a frustrating thing, unless I find a way of doing some Point to Point, maybe, though I'd have to find the right route. International connections would be another option... though perhaps in longer term. What do you suggest?
Well, let's be clear. I guess you're talking about Cuba, right?
Indeed, Havana is located on one side of the island, and it is the only transfer-enabled airport around. The geography of the place makes it challenging to build a hub-and-spoke system (actually, that would be near-impossible for most domestic routes given the size of the country). In that context, I would indeed say that you should consider a P2P schedule – which may of course be more challenging to build.
To start with, I would suggest you to check which could be the most profitable routes for similar airlines on other servers using AS Route Map for example – as well as real stats from Wikipedia if you can find some.
Hub-and-spoke would be in that case much better suited to medium- / long-haul flights.
My two cents here :)
Well, let's be clear. I guess you're talking about Cuba, right?
Indeed, Havana is located on one side of the island, and it is the only transfer-enabled airport around. The geography of the place makes it challenging to build a hub-and-spoke system (actually, that would be near-impossible for most domestic routes given the size of the country). In that context, I would indeed say that you should consider a P2P schedule – which may of course be more challenging to build.
To start with, I would suggest you to check which could be the most profitable routes for similar airlines on other servers using AS Route Map for example – as well as real stats from Wikipedia if you can find some.
Hub-and-spoke would be in that case much better suited to medium- / long-haul flights.
My two cents here :)
Thanks, yes, I'm talking about Cuba. I'll let it go on for a few days, see how loads develop. Meanwhile,
- Is it worth trying to emulate real-world flights? I have found some online
- How do I check profitable routes for similar airlines on other servers? And do you actually mean in same country? Sorry, not sure how I'd got about doing that.
- Is it worth testing international routes to see if demand picks up? I would've thought that the internaitonal routes can then connect to domestic ones, no?
Thanks
Is it worth trying to emulate real-world flights? I have found some online
It could be, yes. AS is partly based on real-world data, so real-world routes are definitely a good start. Wikipedia is your friend :)
How do I check profitable routes for similar airlines on other servers? And do you actually mean in same country? Sorry, not sure how I'd got about doing that.
I mean, you should go check on other game worlds for airlines based in Cuba.
The tool AS Route Map is a good start, as it will graphically display the routes of any airline [i.e. a Cuba-based airline such as Habana de Aviacion on Kaitak], with the thickness of the line indicating the capacity of the route. That should be a good indication for your own new airline.
Is it worth testing international routes to see if demand picks up? I would've thought that the internaitonal routes can then connect to domestic ones, no?
The rule of thumb says that you should focus on domestic routes first (as you have nearly no or little competition on a protected market such as Cuba), and later gradually start international routes farther and farther away by relying on overseas interlining partners.
Starting straight with international routes might work, but can be risky if you don’t know well where the demand is. There routes can be very profitable, but can also cost you a lot if you can’t fill your planes!
Disclaimer: I’m not the most experienced player around, so don’t take what I’m saying as the absolute truth. But it should be fairly true. 
I guess Cuba is challenging but have never played there. You cannot fly to the US so the biggest market is closed. But you can fly to other Carribean countries and try to send your passengers into other countries.
Why do you use a cargo plane? I would rather go for passenger transport...