A lot of people say they easily make between 30 to 40 % margin. I will be very honest with you, the only way to know how to get that is if you have re-started many times. What gives you that 30 - 40 % margin is how you balance the amount of seats vs price ... I always manage to get 4 star on-board service(below 9$AS) for economy..but can't seem to understand how to optimize the seating config for my aircraft vs the price of the seat to be able to get that 40%
My best try is reducing my price and getting 25% prodift margin on a full plane. I have a strong HUB system that I have been developping..with that I have 30% transfer pax..hoping to raise that number to 90% in the next few months.
You're pretty much right on. I have had to restart many, many times in the past. I've been playing this simulation on and off for about three years now. Getting 40% is pretty easy if you are starting new on a new server. With the high demand and no supply, you can get get and sustain a high profit margin for a while. The key is to establish your airline and the connections as early as possible so they will sustain and continue to be at that high profitability later on. For instance, I am filling planes with $159 tickets when others can't fill their planes with $99 prices.
When you are looking at how to optimize the number of seats to get the optimum profit, one thing you want to pay attention with is the seats in a row. If you are going regional (CRK/CR9/CR7, Embraers, and even the 737-600), you aren't going to want to go with anything higher than leisure plus in economy. An E95 with 84 leisure plus seats (which is what I use), would only fit 63 comfort seats. If you're talking the $159 price, you are losing $3339 per flight just in economy. Take that over a 3-route day, you are losing over $70,000 per week. Doesn't seem like much, but put that up over 20 or 30 planes, and you really start to notice the loss. In a high AGEX economy (what Aspern has right now), so long as you aren't overcharging, have good connections, and have good ratings, you should be able to fill up your economy seats.
Caithes...there is a correlation between seat type and price you can charge and maintain the same rating. It's a lot of work to find out by try and test methodology, but there is logic into it. I can say that there are some seats that are less suitable for narrower planes than other (seats), but the difference in revenue you can pull e.g. en E195 by installing leisure plus, comfort, even recliner longhaul in economy, is very minimal with right pricing, If you use the right seat distribution between business/economy seats and right pricing, you can actually pull in higher revenue (with the same per flight cost) by using better seats... again, there is logic of seat space factor and price factor. But you need to try and test, try and test. I spent tens of hours (on both old seat system, and new seat system) to get to the point where I know what seating to use on which plane, route, and what price to charge, so my flights are profitable. That with lower AGEX I have not yet gotten time to adjust all flights/planes and respective rpicing is another matter (with almost 1800 flights).
Abdul Leroy... the more time you play the game, the more you will learn, and get "feeling" for. I would suggest you lease some old 737-300 at 30.000 AS$ per week, and start experimenting with seats, routes, prices. Yes it will cost some money to install seating configs, but you need to invest... "I DID" (and still do) ... I consider it research & development cost. And while 737-300 is older plane with not-as-good image as new 737 NG, you will be able to extrapolate your findings into newer fleet (results you find out on an old plane, can be same or better on new plane...simple logic).
economically speaking, a full plane might not always be the most benefical condition...
Depending on price, I agree. It always helps to know a little math when determining where to put the price, and when to raise and lower it. For example, if you have 100 seats available on a route that you are charging $120 on, and you are filling 95 seats on that plane, you are making $11,200, but if you drop that price $10 to get those last five seats filled, you are only making $11,000.
I find that having a strong network is what makes your airline a big success. I used to play on Fornebu in Canada and found it extremely hard to compete against existing companies. I eventually gave up, but what I had learned from that is when you want to build a competition resistant airline, you need to have a HUB with some good connections. That allows you to lose direct travel but still gives you the tranfser.
As it is, the best profit margin i seem to be getting is around 15% - 20%. I am very happy with that and I won't complain considering that it's a world that has some pretty big players.
in theory I would aim at 25% to 30% for a new airline, and 35% to 40% for an established airline.
In reality you have to settle for the best possible result
A new airline doesn’t have a network that provides a lot of transfer passengers, so quite often seat loads are not optimal. Interlining can help, but also eats a big chunk of your profits if you only have a few planes that provide an income.
It helps a lot if you find one or two good routes, where you can sell your tickets slightly more expensive and still get fully booked planes. Looking for cheaper than standard leases also helps. A lot depends on the circumstances…
You have about an 88% seat load factor, which isn't bad. Personally, I would try to make it higher, but that's a function of mathematics that's a little too much to go into right now. It's okay for the moment.
Your flight ratings are pretty low. Part of that is you are using old 737s and Dash 8s. You need to increase service to get your flights filled but still, an 88% SLF isn't bad. I notice you only have a few flights into the USA. Cross-border flights between the US and Canada can be tricky. Vancouver has a lot of slots available, so if you are wanting to grow and be more than a regional airline, you are going to want to get planes and fly them into major western USA airports like Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas... you already have a flight going into SLC and LAX, and that's good, but when you are playing on an older server like Idlewild, and you are running a regional airliner, you are going to want to either interline with airlines that fly larger jets into Vancouver, or do it yourself.
Trimming flights might seem like the way to go, but you can be cutting out internal transfer passengers, which can hurt other flights. I'm not sure what your money situation is, but I would look at getting some 737 NGs (600, 700 mainly) to replace your old 737s. Cost will go up, but your image will grow, which will increase your flight rating over the long term.
Yes, I'm trying to make the SLF go higher - basically, fuller flights = better, right?
I am afraid that if I switch to 737NG planes, my leasing cost will go way up. Right now I have very cheap leasing cost on the 737 classics and my Dash-8 Q100/300's. In fact my Q400's are the most expensive planes in terms of cost per week! In terms of interlining partners, I have several large ones on that server, one of which is one of the largest airlines in North America on that server. For some reason demand out of Denver is low, or already saturated. I am having better luck with LAX and ORD. SLC is low seat factor but I hope it will fill up, I will tweak my schedule to try and connect with the other flights from partners.
Yes, I'm trying to make the SLF go higher - basically, fuller flights = better, right?
I am afraid that if I switch to 737NG planes, my leasing cost will go way up. Right now I have very cheap leasing cost on the 737 classics and my Dash-8 Q100/300's. In fact my Q400's are the most expensive planes in terms of cost per week! In terms of interlining partners, I have several large ones on that server, one of which is one of the largest airlines in North America on that server. For some reason demand out of Denver is low, or already saturated. I am having better luck with LAX and ORD. SLC is low seat factor but I hope it will fill up, I will tweak my schedule to try and connect with the other flights from partners.
Just a couple of quick observations and suggestions...
First, I am assuming you are talking about your YVR airline Jet BC. I might have said this before, but cross-border flights are notoriously difficult to fill up. Interlining partners help a lot, especially if they are large, and so long as they don't fly into YVR all that much. You need those spokes to make profit.
Leasing costs of newer 737s is higher, and the overwhelming desire to keep costs low makes it difficult to justify dropping so much for a 737-600 or -700. If you're already making a profit, then stick with what you have. If it isn't broke, don't try to fix it.
It is extremely difficult to start a successful, long-term airline on a game server that's more than a year old. There is a reason why those servers only have 250-300 holding companies on them. Most airlines that start on a server just won't make it. If you can survive on a server like Devau, Stapleton, Idlewild, or Fornebu for more than two or three months, you are doing a very good job.
Out of curiosity, what is your ultimate goal for your airline? What do you hope to accomplish and what would be your "dream" airline?
MY personal and ultimate goal is to be able to hold the biggest airline in the country I am in...plus...create as many subsidiaries possible to operate around the world so that I can create the biggest network around the world using only one holding company :D
I applaud your ambition. If you are talking about the one listed in your signature, from Nicosia, I wish you the best of luck. Nicosia is where I had my most profitable airline before the one on Aspern. I made it to three months, and a million passengers, before I got smashed by the biggest airline in my hub country.
My style is to focus on profit margin. I don't bother too much about transferring the most number of passengers. That's why I usually do medium to long haul, which you can generate a substantial amount of profit without the need to frequently get your plane filled. Indeed in a new server it is much easier, but you can also get a decent profit in old server too.
And yes, you are not an average player if you manage to get a hold with over 30% profit margin.
Just a couple of quick observations and suggestions...
First, I am assuming you are talking about your YVR airline Jet BC. I might have said this before, but cross-border flights are notoriously difficult to fill up. Interlining partners help a lot, especially if they are large, and so long as they don't fly into YVR all that much. You need those spokes to make profit.
Leasing costs of newer 737s is higher, and the overwhelming desire to keep costs low makes it difficult to justify dropping so much for a 737-600 or -700. If you're already making a profit, then stick with what you have. If it isn't broke, don't try to fix it.
It is extremely difficult to start a successful, long-term airline on a game server that's more than a year old. There is a reason why those servers only have 250-300 holding companies on them. Most airlines that start on a server just won't make it. If you can survive on a server like Devau, Stapleton, Idlewild, or Fornebu for more than two or three months, you are doing a very good job.
Out of curiosity, what is your ultimate goal for your airline? What do you hope to accomplish and what would be your "dream" airline?
Yes, spokes are important. I am trying to make more spokes out of Vancouver to USA and Eastern Canada, with strong interline partners in each region. So far so good! I am improving, my SLF is going higher and I am routinely filling a lot of flights. One competitor in my area just quit, but then a new one started up - we will see how this new competitor lasts...
What I am doing in regards to my planes is to keep an eye out for cheap deals - which do come up from time to time. Sometimes good leasing deals can be had, especially from non-AS company. I will slowly modernize my fleet, find newer aircraft for good deal and then replace the older aircraft. For example, I found 3x 738's for good deal compared to the other 738's on the market, and I grabbed those to expand my fleet. Same with a few newer Q300's, and someone (non-AS company) just released a younger batch of Q200A's I will use to replace my Q100B's which average ~20 years of age. I am currently still using my older 737-300/400/500, but looking for replacements for them. So far the 737 Classics are still filling up which is good considering how cheap they are to lease. Fuel cost is more of course...
My goal is to have a strong presence in Canada using YVR as Western hub, and YYZ as Eastern hub. Then I also want to provide gateway to the Pacific via Long-Haul flights but that is for future goal, still far away.
