Hi,
If you are the sole airline to operate to some of the smaller airfields on the map, how much could you theoretically charge without affecting demand - since the only alterative could possibly be through ground networks?
Thanks!
Ben
Not sure what you are trying to do, but I don’t think you can just run an airline with low-demand airfields in AS. The ground network isn’t going to solve the demand issue. What you need is to set a good transfer wave structure so that you have the majority of the passengers being transferred, and then the low-demand airport routes will also work out quite well.
sole airlines operating to an airport =/= solely running the airlines to low demand airport.
Let say for example if I operate a hub out of VVO and found that I am the only player in the world to serve all Russian airports to the east of VVO, how price sensitive would the passengers be to my pricing of my flights?
Oh, this basically becomes the question of how the pricing works when you are the sole operator on any route. You can see the price and image rating trade-off in the old posts like this: Cutomer price sensitivity. The feeder network is still key, though, as it helps increase the possible demand for these routes.
Ah I see what you mean with the feeders. But let’s say you already operate to an airfield with a decent load factor and, like qunow said, you are the ONLY airline to operate there from any destination.
Will passengers forego flying if the only way they can get to a destination is too expensive, or can you just crank the price up with no immediate effect?
The simple science is a bit primitive but u just keep gradually raising the prices until you impact upon your demand. Sometimes it can be difficult to keep track if you have many flight numbers on the go. So Id recommend raising one flight number in a round trip at a time rather then both, so you know which price is sustainable.
Also keep in mind a high ticket price will negatively impact your airline’s image on those routes. Over time, this will reduce the airline’s image (visible on the company overview/dashboard page), which may make it more difficult to compete on routes where your airline does not have a monopoly.
Ah ok thanks guys, thought there would be a catch!
There is also a balance between service and pricing. If you are trying to raise the price to make sure some of the unbooked lower-demand routes are making a profit, as far as my experience, it would be much easier to just make sure you have sufficient connections to have enough pax to make the flight fully booked. I run a lot of low-demand airport routes, and I found that method to be far more useful and robust. There are also airports that might just not work out for you in the end