International Flights Not filling up

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1

I have just been doing business on AS for couple of days now. So... this may be a question that was already asked/answered before:

I opened up some domestic flights, and some international flights. Using 737 classic. Domestic flights are filling up pretty nicely. But international flights e.g. Caracas, Quito, etc. have very low bookings. For example, a flight to Caracas has a booking of only 5!!! passengers (whereas competing airlines are fully booked). I have offered a default system price (which is lower than competitors) but the flight is simply not filling up. Quito is somewhat better and is at 33%, 2 days before departure, But Domestics are now at 80-100%, 2 days before departure at 100% and 3 days before departure at 80% average. On both domestic and International flights, I am offering default pricing, only cargo I have bumped up a bit to reflect others' rate (cargo is filling fine at this higher rate).

1) Why aren't my international flights filling up?

2) Should I cancel my international flights if a day before departure the financial prognosis says I will lose money on the flight?

Is there something like a "route reputation" that builds over time, by flying the route? What I mean is whether it's somehow worth flying the route even if losing money (for some bigger reason/objective) or it's better to just cancel those flights?

I selected international routes based on actual real-life demand and it can be seen that the demand is there, because competitors' flighst are fully booked, at even much higher rate than default rate.

Thank you for your advise.

2

Your competitors (larger airlines) have not only direct connection, but also transfer passengers from their feeders either feeders from external (through interlining) and internal (self connections). Larger airlines have lots of connections offered and so it might be an advantage for them although their prices are much higher than yours.

As you said that international flights are not filling up as expected, it may be due to your rating of your flights. Check out ORS and you will find the ratings. Passengers will usually go for better rating rather than poorer rating with lower price. If your competitors are using premium seats and services, probably they can charge much higher price. International flights will always be challenging although it is popular in real life. International flights require you to have refine services and price with good connections.

Check out your flights on the day of departure. When you click on "details" of your flight, you will find three columns at the right. The first column shows your total revenue for the flight. The second column shows profit after direct expenses. The third column shows total profit made for the flight after direct and indirect expenses. To cancel a flight, you can check for your second column. It is reflected directly to your cash flow when the flight departs. So, when it shows green, it means you can keep it flying although the third column shows loss (because your a/c needs to earn as much cash as possible to pay for the cost). If it shows red, you have to pay back all your revenue to your passengers as the flight is cancelled. So, do check out your return flight as well and calculate how much you earn from the profit after direct expenses.

There is "reputation" in AS, we called it "rating". As I said, ORS is the system used to deal with this. Check out frequently as it is helpful for you. Once again, AS is a game emphasizes on hub spoken system which you must build a strong hub in order to get good profit. Good luck!  :)

3

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Direct/indirect expenses make sense.

For example, one of my flights has the following rating:

First line: 2 green bars - rating 24

Second line: 733 (guess that's 737-300)

Third line: 4 green bars - rating 76

Can you plaese tell me what does 24 and 76 mean and what do the two ratings refer to? for example some of the competing flights have raing 14 / 57 on 733 as well.

You mentioned that lowe price may not necessarily offset low rating. In real life, passangers are very often willing to get lower quality service for a substantial price discount. Do I understand that in AS it is not that way? That it is preferred to build premium product and charge lower-than-default prices?

4

I think Peter hit on it in the first paragraph. In most countries the domestic market is fairly easy to enter, the international market less so. For international traffic you need connection traffic. Ie. Passengers coming from other airports via your hub, and then at the other end passenger transferring onto interlining partners flights. This would be how you competitor is filling aircraft generally

Ian

5

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Direct/indirect expenses make sense.

For example, one of my flights has the following rating:

First line: 2 green bars - rating 24

Second line: 733 (guess that's 737-300)

Third line: 4 green bars - rating 76

Can you plaese tell me what does 24 and 76 mean and what do the two ratings refer to? for example some of the competing flights have raing 14 / 57 on 733 as well.

You mentioned that lowe price may not necessarily offset low rating. In real life, passangers are very often willing to get lower quality service for a substantial price discount. Do I understand that in AS it is not that way? That it is preferred to build premium product and charge lower-than-default prices?

For the first bar, it shows green color when your flight has a rating of +24 (Sometimes this bar shows red color when the services offered are extremely bad). You can check out your competitors' ratings and find out how far you are different from them. In AS, +24 is considered bad and not encouraged as you have lots of competitors flying the route. Usually, we will try to achieve at least 3-bar green rating (around 40+) in order to gain competitive advantage. If your competitors have 4-bar rating (around 60+), then you should have the rating around that in order for passengers to choose flying with your airline. This bar shows only rating of dedicated flight.

Second bar shows the overall rating of your flight/s. Each connection may reduce the rating of these flights. Eg: passenger would like to fly from A to C but there is no direct connection. So, the passenger may need to have a transfer at B in order for him to arrive his destination with another connection (B to C). As in real life, a transfer will extend your overall flight time which in turn would reduce your rating as well. As for your case, +74 is considered quite bad as you are offering standard seats with high price. We will try to achieve +99 (for Airbus & Boeing jets) and +94 (for regional jets). You may find that there is a difference rating between using a Boeing jet and Bombardier jet because they have different speed which will affect the flight duration. Longer flight duration means lower rating in AS.

In AS, it is seldom for players to set up a LCC because there is no suitable tool for setting up except you do it manually (but risky). Passengers will usually go for higher rating flights. So, a LCC must adjust the ticket price 30% (can be even lower) below AS default price in order to achieve higher rating while at the same time offer "cheap/bad" services & seats. AS default price is just a reference for players to adjust their prices. The default price is based on distance between 2 airports and so there is no other factor affecting it such as landing fees and etc.

In conclusion, passengers would emphasize on value as what happens in real world. We will only choose LCC with bad services and seats when it does really have really low price. Other wise, we would go for "premium" airlines which worth for the value we perceived.

6

Two questions about reputation:

What affects the first reputation (2 green bars, rating 24). Is this the onboard service and seating? Can I have carmped seating with good onboard service for better reputation? Or do I need to have both, good seating and excellent service, in order to get high enough reputation? How can I see what reputation I will get before actually schedulling the flight, and waiting for it to appear in ORS? I know the onboard service confirgation can have rating preview, but it only shows bars (red or green) but no numerical value.

What exactly affects the second reputation (4 green bars, rating 76). This is the overall reputation - but how is it calculated, and how can i improve it (besides improving the first line reputation)? What effect does aircraft type/age have on overall reputation?

7

I might be way off on this, so if I am, I'm sure someone will correct me :)

The first rating in the ORS, directly under where it says "Rating / Eq" is the same as the "Product Overall" rating in the flight information (under Route Management). This rating is an average/combination of certain "Product Factors" in the flight information, namely: On-Board Service, Seats, Terminals, and Image. Dedicated Freighter would work if it was a cargo hauler.

The second rating in the ORS (usually a few more green bars than the first) is based more on your Price Performance Ratio in the flight information, but it also includes a lot of other factors as well. These would include things like: is it a direct flight or a connection? is there ground service required? how long do customers have to wait for a connecting flight?

This isn't a full on 100% correct answer. I have no idea what the formulas are, and I'm sure very few people actually do.

I can tell you that I normally get 40-65 on the first rating and 90-99 on the second rating. I use at least one bump up in the seat configuration of each class and also provide some great on-board service. I'm normally paying around $6-$10 per Y class customer, and somewhere around $28-$35 per C class customer. Sure, you don't make as much money, but I'm only a few weeks in and already have an image rating of three bars for business, four in economy.

8

but I'm only a few weeks in and already have an image rating of three bars for business, four in economy.

Thanks, Caithes! You say you are in for three weeks... did your ratings start with three bars in C/ four bars in Y from the beginning? Or does it gradually increase?

9

it jumped up pretty fast. I think it was at 2 bars after a couple of days, then three bars the next week, and now a 3 and a 4.

10

... In real life, passangers are very often willing to get lower quality service for a substantial price discount. Do I understand that in AS it is not that way?

Hi,

In real life, most passengers accept (even prefer) very low service if the price is very low. Only a few passengers are willing to pay high prices for high quality service.

In the game, passengers don't care about money. They care about value for money. They will be as happy to pay through the nose for top quality, as they are happy with a low quality cheap flight.

And I believe the game is fairly balanced as far as seats are concerned. If you can sell economy seats at default price, you can sell ecoplus seats at default+30%. If the other factors (on-board service, number of flight attendants...) are the same, the two planes will make more or less the same profit.

Jan

11

... but I'm only a few weeks in and already have an image rating of three bars for business, four in economy.

Hi,

the discussion in this topic was about ORS rating, or the value for money rating of a flight.

You are talking about the image rating. But just to make sure... the image rating of your airline has nothing to do with your on-board service and the type of seats you use.

Every single flight gets an image rating, based on the type of plane, staff mood, the number of flight attendants, the age of the aircraft, and the technical condition of the plane. The combined image ratings off all your individual flights build up the overall image rating of your airline. And that overall image rating is one of the product factors that influence the ORS rating of every flight.

In other words, an increasing overall image rating will allow you to sell your tickets slightly more expensive (while still getting the same ORS rating). Just like offering wine instead of water allows you to sell your tickets more expensive while still getting the same ORS rating. Or again in other words, leasing a more expensive new plane will allow you to sell your tickets slightly more expensive than leasing a cheap old plane, while still getting the same ORS rating.

Another thing about your overall image rating. You start your airline with an overall image rating of 0. When your first flight takes off, your image will jump to something around 50 (depending on the image rating of that first flight). From then on, every single flight adds to your overall image. And it slowly builds up over time, or it slowly deteriorates over time.

Jan

12

Jan, thank you for your exhaustive explanation. So just to sum up, w ehave three ratings?

- per flight rating (based on aircraft, staff mood, seating, etc.)

- Image rating of the airline

- ORS rating calculated based on both of the above.

Is this correct?

In my case above, to which rating did 24, and to which rating did 76 correspond? Was 24 the per flight rating, and the 76 the ORS rating? Or the image rating? I am still bit confused which rating is which (and where to find it). I have a deep feeling that profound understanding of ratings is key to sucess in AS.

13

The 24 corresponds to the ORS rating for the individual flight segment, and the 76 is the ORS rating that relates to the entire journey.  The journey rating is somewhat relates to the rating for the individual flight segments, but it also includes the total amount of time to go from AAA to BBB as well as the number and duration of connections.  

Even though the entire journey may be the same as the individual flight segment, it could include connections for another player's airline.  The ORS shows combinations of your direct routes as well as alternative routes that include connections.  A passenger can go from AAA to CCC, or they can fly AAA to BBB to CCC.  The direct routing is preferable to the connection.

14

Jan, thank you for your exhaustive explanation. So just to sum up, w ehave three ratings?

- per flight rating (based on aircraft, staff mood, seating, etc.)

- Image rating of the airline

- ORS rating calculated based on both of the above.

Is this correct?

In my case above, to which rating did 24, and to which rating did 76 correspond? Was 24 the per flight rating, and the 76 the ORS rating? Or the image rating? I am still bit confused which rating is which (and where to find it). I have a deep feeling that profound understanding of ratings is key to sucess in AS.

You can check your image of your airline in the overview panel or so called "dashboard". Look at the right and you will find "IMAGE" which shows current week, last week and trend for economy, business, first and cargo.

15

- per flight rating (based on aircraft, staff mood, seating, etc.)

- Image rating of the airline

- ORS rating calculated based on both of the above.

Is this correct?

Hi,

well, there are a lot of variables in the game that rate your airline one way or another  :-)

But I guess the ORS rating is the most important one. The ORS, or Online Reservation System (I hope I am correct  ;-) is in my opinion the heart and core of the game. It is that part of the game that gives every flight a rating, calculates the demand of every airport, and decides which tickets the passengers book.

You should note that I am only a player, and all my observations concerning the ORS are nothing more than observations...

Every flight produces an image rating. This rating is not used to determine the ORS rating, but it influences the overall image of your airline. And that overall airline image (for each seperate class) is one of the product factors. So the image of each flight influences the ORS rating in an indirect way.

When you check the ORS ratings, you see two ratings. At least, if it is a direct flight.

The first rating is the overall product rating. It rates the quality of your seats, service, terminals... I don't know if every factor has the same importance. I have for example noticed that using your own terminals is more important to business class passengers than to economy passengers. Getting a 5 bar terminal rating hardly improves your overall economy product rating, but greatly improves your overall business class product rating.

Back to the ORS rating. By the way, hover your mouse over the green bars to read the exact ratings. The same goes for your airline image rating on the Dashboard page.

The second rating is your overall ORS rating. This rating decides how many passengers will book your flight. This final rating compares the quality of your flight (overall product rating) with the price you are asking. What I call the value for money rating. It also checks the duration of the flight and adds the speed of your flight to the equation. That is why a turboprop will get a maximum rating of 92 where a jet gets a maximum rating of 99. The faster jets can even get a rating of 100. Even if they offer the same on-board service, use the same seats and sell the tickets for the same price.

When the ORS checks combined flights to get from A to B, you first see the overall product factor rating of each flight, and at the bottom again the overall ORS rating.

Passengers prefer the flights with the highest overall ORS ratings. Mind you, it is not a matter of all or nothing... a high rating only means you get a bigger share of the available passengers. It also means that short transfer times will give you a higher rating than long waiting times between connecting flights. And it also means that choosing an interlining partner with high (overall product) ratings will get you more transfer passengers than an IL partner with low ratings.

Jan

16

But like in reality there is no guarantee that you can fill international flights always and everywhere, if there is no or low demand.

17

Thank you very much for the explanation. I am getting the image rating stuff step by step.

So just a final question: If My overal ORS rating is e.g. 80 and I want to move it to 90, I would have to reduce my price to get the higher "value" ORS rating, is that correct? Obviously i would do it only if my flights were not filling up (for now I have reduced routing to domestic networks only, which are filling up better).

The ORS rating would be different for each flight, right? So if I use a turboprop and jet on the same route, each flight would ahve a different ORS rating, correct?

Does frequency affect ORS rating? E.g. can more frequency improve overall ORS rating for the particular city pair?

Does the ORS rating also influence in which sequence do the flights show up in ORS? I ahve noticed that flights go by the airine, not by the departure time. So for example, Airline A has its flights listed first, for the 3 days, tehn Airline B, all flights for 3 days, then Airline C. Is this the result of the ORS rating? Or it has nothing to do with ORS and there is some other logic to the order how flights show up in ORS?

18

So just a final question: If My overal ORS rating is e.g. 80 and I want to move it to 90, I would have to reduce my price to get the higher "value" ORS rating, is that correct?

Hi,

if you want a higher ORS rating, you have to lower your ticket price or increase the value of your flight (better seats, better on-board service, higher overall airline image, ...)

The ORS rating would be different for each flight, right? So if I use a turboprop and jet on the same route, each flight would ahve a different ORS rating, correct?

Every flight has the same rating, if all variables are the same.

Using a turboprop and a jet on the same route will give you a different rating. If all other variables are the same, the turboprop should have a lower rating.

Does frequency affect ORS rating? E.g. can more frequency improve overall ORS rating for the particular city pair?

No it doesn't.

Does the ORS rating also influence in which sequence do the flights show up in ORS?

Yes it does.

Flights with the highest overall rating are shown first. And flights with the same rating are shown in chronological order. So if two airlines have the same rating, their flights will also be shown in chronological order.

Jan