Making profits with very small planes?

Hello,

So as my first airline in the game I wanted to make a small airline in Alaska that goes to all the airport that are too small to be covered by other airline.

I based my airline in fairbanks, wich is a relatively big airport (for alaska) and I bought 4 brand new LET 410UVP.

I cover about 20 different airports, some of them have daily flights, most only have a flight a week.

Now my problem is that even tho i cut off all the services on board and I bumped up the tickets price 25% I barely break even when the flights are full.

So I was wondering if anyone succeeded making this type of airline, do you have any tips? Are those planes just too small to be profitable?

No, they are not to small to be profitable and you can get a really good margin especially if you own them. If a fully booked flight, 25% over standard and without onboard service does not give you a good profit, your plane is either to much on the ground or, more likely, you have not enough seats installed. For further information you'll have to give so more data, or allow a look at your airline (by giving name and server). ;)

Of course it is harder to operate small regional planes as the main type of your fleet. You have to find routes with enough passengers to fill your flights, but not enough for a larger company to be attractive. And because a lot of players want to get every single dollar out of their home market, you usually have strong competitors even if there is not enough demand. It is not a big investment for a large company to copy your flights and urge you out of the market, so you have to act unobrusive. And be aware of IL-proposals, they can break your neck easily. That said, it is a very interesting way to play the game ;)

I would not recommend LETs to use. My choice for Alaska would be (and was) Dash8. I once covered all airports in Alaska with daily flights on nearly every route, also from and to Fairbanks. (Some runways are too small - hence these airports were not integrated in my network.)

BUT - it was a sub of my US-mainline which offered thousands of connections. That helped to fill the planes. Not saying that it is impossible as a startup but you will need a good working network in the US market. Meaning, either an IL with a big guy or you have to build that network on your own.

Good luck!

Well, that is the "normal" way to play airlinesim, isn't it? Organise a hub, build a network, interline with big guys to get the passengers you need for your small routes and hope for not being killed by the kraken ( ;) ) until you are yourself a kraken. No word against it, but sometimes it is interesting to play it differently. You don't necessarily need all of this to have fun, and trying to be and stay a "family business" can be even more satisfying. You need different tactics, of course, as described before.

Thanks for the replies.

I just realized that some of my flights were still being sold at the default price, that’s why I was still loosing money.

For the planes I thought about the dash 8 but they are pretty expensive and I didnt really wanna lease them…maybe I should have bought old ones I don’t know.

I play on Ellinikon by the way.

... I bought 4 brand new LET 410UVP.

I cover about 20 different airports, some of them have daily flights, most only have a flight a week.

With every station you serve, you hire additional staff.

A weekly Let barely pays the bills for them.

I thought about the dash 8 but they are pretty expensive and I didnt really wanna lease them

It's generally recommended to lease planes at the start. After all, for the price you pay to buy one plane you could lease 10 planes for almost 2 years.

Ok, makes sense, thanks for the tips, I guess I'll start over since it seems like I did a lot of things wrong at first.

It's generally recommended to lease planes at the start. After all, for the price you pay to buy one plane you could lease 10 planes for almost 2 years.

Your calculation isn’t correct, the weekly leasing rate is 1/200th of the buying price with the depot being 1/20th. So, you can lease 10 planes for 10 weeks for the buying price of one aircraft. Good enough, but if expansion isn’t your main goal it can still be better to buy the planes, at least if you know what you are doing. And the buying price of the small planes isn’t that high at all, especially if you take a look at the used market. For larger planes, or if you want a fast expansion, leasing is the better option, of course. As I said before, the “normal” way versus the “special” way :wink:

Oh right, I made a mistake in my calculation. Sorry! The main point is still valid though. If from the 10 Mio starting capital you buy 4 brand new LETs for 8 Mio, it will take you quite a while until you have the money for the 5th & 6th one... And I'm just guessing that expansion is the main goal of any new airline, as there's only so much you can do with the 10 Mio starting capital; but of course different players may have different preferences.

I am not really looking to create a huge airline. I like the idea of a small regional airline to be honest.

Fair enough. But then I would still consider another plane as your small regional plane (and also perhaps another area than the US / Alaska). As far as I have seen it, there are huge competitors operating on your server in the US.

Yea you’re probably right, I thought alaska would be a little less saturated since it is so isolated but I should probably find another market

The far north is an attractive travel destination for a lot of people in reality, and that is normally a good indicator for airlinesim, too. Furthermore, Alaska is still and ongoing a part of the US, so all american companies have all rights to fly there. So there will always be competition sooner or later. If you want to build up a small regional company in a less crowded market, take a look at africa. I guess you'll find a lot of white spots there even on ellinikon. But be aware, it is much harder to maintain a small regional company than trying to build up a "normal" airline.

The far north is an attractive travel destination for a lot of people in reality, and that is normally a good indicator for airlinesim, too. Furthermore, Alaska is still and ongoing a part of the US, so all american companies have all rights to fly there. So there will always be competition sooner or later. If you want to build up a small regional company in a less crowded market, take a look at africa. I guess you'll find a lot of white spots there even on ellinikon. But be aware, it is much harder to maintain a small regional company than trying to build up a "normal" airline.

@Hybreko: Cape Verde is a nice place to have a small but well going ailine for example. I had some airlines there. And you can grow via DKR to the rest aof Africa if you like to.

I think I found exactly what I was looking for. Kiribati, a small archipelago in the middle of the pacific.

They have 2 airlines irl that cover the domestic market so there should a domestic demand.

 

 I guess you'll find a lot of white spots there even on ellinikon.

Is there a map somewhere that I missed that shows how crowded a country is or is it just an expression?

I have been using the database statistics so far but it's a little tedious.

Kiribati ...

Whatever domestic demand you will find there, it will be little. And absolutely zero prospect of international expansion. You play a global airline simulation and cut yourself off from the rest of the world - really your best choice?

Is there a map somewhere that I missed that shows how crowded a country is or is it just an expression?

I have been using the database statistics so far but it’s a little tedious.

It’s just a phrase, you won’t find such a map and have to find out by yourself. :wink:

To find the spot / the niche is the challenging part. But it also can be the most exciting part.

Before you can find your spot, you should have an idea what you want to acchieve. Is your goal to stay small and connect some islands (as an example), there are many places to go. If you want to stay small in China or another really crowded place, it looks differently and will need another strategy.

The good news: everybody here has needed many restarts. So don't hesitate to do your experiments.

Kiribati ...

Whatever domestic demand you will find there, it will be little. And absolutely zero prospect of international expansion. You play a global airline simulation and cut yourself off from the rest of the world - really your best choice?

Well in my head I was gonna be able to create routes to australia, the us, and asia.

The reality is that there is absolutely no demand, domestic or international so there goes that idea...

That probably explains why no one was flying there in the first place.

well I guess I'll start over somewhere else.