This is my third attempt at an airline, and after rereading the Wiki and searching through pages and pages and pages of the forum to find answers to my questions about strategy, scheduling, etc., I’m finally seeing successful bookings, so many thanks to those who take the time and are so helpful with us newbies.
At any rate, my question is this: How does the image factor which is displayed on the ‘Overview’ screen influence passenger bookings, if at all?
To ask another way, as a new airline, none of my routes have been flown yet, as I used the ‘activate schedule 3 days delayed’ feature. Most of the routes, however, are 100% booked for the first two days, with the exception of a few, which seem stuck in the 70s-80s. In the coming days as my routes are flown, I know that the image indicators for the varying classes will go up. Does that mean since they’re neutral now, as shown in the picture I attached, those routes which are 70-80% booked will go up on future flights because my image goes up? Or will I need to look at cabin services, prices, etc. for those to go up?
Image factor is one of the components of Product Overall factor, which is very important for connections. It also affects Price Performance Ratio, which is important for direct flights too.
They’re important, so you have to keep a relatively new fleet, good staff mood and a good number of flight attendants. With a steady AGEX, your bookings will certainly improve after company image goes up.
A related question to this. To attract more PAX, should I focus to increase image (e.g. reduce # of seats) or should I focus to reduce price? Of course, in the end lower prices with higher image would attract most PAX, but which of the both is the more significant lever?
To attract more passengers you need to offer more connections ;) . The more connections you offer the more choices they have and the more you can attract. You can have a look with what A/C your competetors are using and you can see if they can fill it up or not. Its a little gamble here to be honest. When you lower the seats it gets you a better image but you need to increase the price since you have to cover the costs with less passengers. If you lower the price you may get more passengers but its not always the case. If you know your Service level is ok keep it otherwise you can also modify it as well. A good strategy is if you have the possibillity to swap aircrafts within a fleet like EMB, CRJ, Airbus or Boeing. I normally try to lower the price to standard and then wait for 3 days. If the Flight fills up its ok if not i go down to a smaller aircraft. Of course if you fill only 10 or 20 % of a crj 1000 for example you don't need to try a CRJ 700 because you will also not fill it so i then clsoe that route and try another one that works. With a bigger network later on you can then try again ....
"BenjaminA330" made some important considerations which are worth listening. Good connections are one of the keys to success. A well-developed allows you to offer a comprehensive schedule with a rather small fleet due to the connections offered. It is also wise (in most cases) to offer appropriate capacities. Passengers prefer frequencies on airlinesim and not the big size of an aircraft. It also allows to to be far more flexible and it is in most cases easier to fill a smaller plane. Make sure that you have several routes which guarantee cash-flow. Carefully increase frequencies on these routes to allow a constant flow of connecting passengers. "Experimental routes" should only be uploaded as long as you are sure that your current schedule ensures enough income.