Soviet Airline in Armenia

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1

Hello everyone.

I've played for a long time a simpler game that you might know of (Airline Manager) but I was frustrated very frustrated by the limitations to RP and realisticness of other aspects.

So, I've red the tutorials, I've located my airline in Erevan, Armenia. I know that with a pax capacity of 4 bars, it is not much, but it is advised to not to go for a big hub straight ahead.

Moreover, as I'm keen on RP, I thought it could be a cool idea to connect the extensive Armenian diaspora across the world to the "motherland" (thus the name Bagratouni Avia, according to the name of the century-long dynasty that ruled the medieval kingdom of Armenia).

So, in order to get realistic (and because I love their planes) I decided to fly at first Soviet planes (ok, they are cheap so that's always good). 

I leased at first a couple of Yak-40 that cost just nothing (400$/week and a depostit of 4000$ ^^), but I can't no one on those planes. Ok, they're old and people don't like them.

Then I leased an Il-86, that is supposed to be more liked (1 green bar) and (a bit) younger, and I still can't get someone on that damn plane.

So I've just leased 2 brand new Tu-204 (with 5 green bar) and less than 10 years old, and we will see wath happens when I finish their relocation.

We will see where it goes. But does this mean that even in this kind of country, it is impossible to fly soviet aircraft ? If the Tu-204 are working, I will try to operate some An-158 and SSJ-100 as they are also still in production.

I've looked at the Erevan, and they are actually quite a lot of people. It is a hub for at least 3 companies with more than 70 flights. Maybe their just to many people.

Any ideas or advices to get my god damn airline of the ground with its Russian equipement ?

Thank you for reading.

2

Just take a look at my airline Bahrain World International as I fly with similar soviet era aircraft, please look I'm on the KAITAK server 

3

I can see that you operate many fancy aircraft, so it definitely shows that one can make them profitable. Howerver, it doesn't tell me what you did to manage to get someone on board.

4

You may wish to hold fire copying highlander. The airline is a day old and does not have traffic rights to operate most of its routes. It doesn’t have a great life expectancy

5

You may wish to hold fire copying highlander. The airline is a day old and does not have traffic rights to operate most of its routes. It doesn't have a great life expectancy

Well, that's unfortunate. So I guess i'm back to square one.

I've planed flights with my brand new Tu-204 (overall flight notation of 2 green bar) and set my prices 15% below average, and still 0% reservation...

Is it instanteous or I've to wait for some time for people to book tickets ?

If some of you want to have a look, it is "Bagratouni Avia" on the Otto server.

6

You have to wait until flights get bookings (at least 3 days - you will already know that if you have read and watched the tutorials).

Other than that: I don't know the demand in Real Life but looking in flightstats.com shows that there are not too many flights departing there. Try to connect / bridge to Moscow and other Russian cities. But I doubt that you will be successful. (Not playing on Otto, hence I cannot see your ORS rating for your flights - seat configuration and service are very important if you fly with old metal).

7

I just checked one flight in ORS, and I guess other will be similar.

On EVN-SVO you have a rating of 78, while the best flies with 88. You have to try to get better as this determines your bookings. You might also want to try all the airports in Moscow.

Check your service profiles, seats, staff mood, etc. Your overall image will take a while to go up so bookings in the first week are not always fully conclusive.

And I would assume that Armenia is quite a difficult place to start.

8

I operate hundreds of TU-204s for cargo and they do me a great job. I have also operated AN-148/158 and SSJ100s in large scales and worked fantastically. The only problem is the constrained size range which is why I have replaced them with CRJs. Having played around in the region (Georgia, Azerbaijan) I know that it is a fun region but a large well working network is required.

9

Ok, thank you for the advices. Pax have started booking some flights, but, as for now, I don't have anything above 40%, most usually ~10%. And the thing is that I have lowered te ticket prices to a point where even fully booked, I'm not profitable.

I will try to increase my ranking, even though I thought that 78 was a pretty good one. I will most surely try to open routes with no or very few competition.

I'm giving me until next week-end to have something that can reach breakeven, or i'll do a reset I guess.

One more question : I'm planning my flight for an once a day rotation. Does it canibalize pax from the day before and after, and thus, it would be cleverer to limit myself at 2/3 rotation a week and fly to new destinations instead ?

10

Bagratouni Avia stopped operations - will you try to restart or will you start in another place?

11

No no, I don't want to give up, but by the time I get accustomed to what's what, I had done too many errors, so I'd rather start again properly.

I'm not going anywhere ^^

Regarding my previous question, do you know the answer ? I'm planning my flight for an once a day rotation. Does it canibalize pax from the day before and after, and thus, it would be cleverer to limit myself at 2/3 rotation a week and fly to new destinations instead ?

12

I have no idea where you want to fly... Main market will be Russia. Try to schedule one daily flight to each destination. Demand is calculated and split on a whole week so you may have passengers flying every day. But this is subject to the demand in general on the routes. As CBE was pointing out, you need a good working network in that area to fill your planes.

13

The original idea was to connect the Armenian diaspora to the motherland.

So my main destinations are Western Europe (with a focus on Airport with no concurence such as Gatwick, Orly or Schoenefeld) and Russia (with unserved airport as well such as Vnukovo, Samara) as I probably won't be able to compet with massive airline located on big Moscow aiport.

I'm trying tu fully understand how manage a working networking (through wave deparature, etc.) but it seems very difficult.

Another thing. I thought that pax were calculated with frequentation on airport A and airport B. But it does not apparently, and I will have to find on wich route they want to fly.

14

The demand is calculated on every airport but not on specific routes. So yes, you have to find out where the passengers want to fly.

As there will be no domestic traffic (or nearly no), you have to find places not only in London but in the neighbourhood. If another country in the area has no domestic carrier, you can fly the passengers from there through your hub to Europe or Asia. Try to fly short and midhaul in the beginning. Waves seem to be difficult to understand but once you have found out how to schedule the flights, it is quite easy. (It took me some days and some resets.)

15

I'm trying tu fully understand how manage a working networking (through wave deparature, etc.) but it seems very difficult.

Read online material on banking (waves, not the financial institution). A good start is here

http://airwaysnews.com/2015/08/17/analysis-american-airlines-rebanks-dfw-and-ohare/

Or if you want something more scholarly http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1443&context=jaaer or http://www.bath.ac.uk/e-journals/jtep/pdf/Volume_XXX_No_3_293-307.pdf

16

You have to find routes with demand. You might want to look at other servers to see where other players have established working routes.

Using routes with no competition might work, but most likely there is none cos there’s no or little demand. I would believe that you have better chances to grab pax from a competitor (if your product is competitive).

I prefer to schedule daily, but in some cases you might have a better load with only three or four weekly flights.

And lowering the price is not the best thing to make your flights more competitive.

17

Invest also in luxury seats and service. That will bring your ORS rating up. 78 is not good enough.

Check real-life flights also. And try routes which seem to be silly - they might work well.

For the fun part, I still would recommend not to start in such a difficult area.

18

Thanks guys for the help.

One would assume that with such big airport as Gatwick or CDG (I double checked and their is just 1 flight/week) their will be some kind of demand. We will see were it goes.

It is starting to sink in, planing the arrival of my fligh in Yerevan 1h before most fo them take off again, in another direction (flight from western europe to fligh to middle east).

As for in real life, Armenian airlines keep going into bankruptcy, so I don't think I can get something from this ^^ Anyway, most of their line are going to Russia obviously.

I will try to upgrade my ORS through services. I want to change seating configuration, but it is quite expensive to do so.

I will try "hijacking" Georgian pax as it seems their is no Georgian company (it is not an invitation to lauch one :P).

I know that is a difficult place to start, but I have to at least get some RP. Other places I considrered were Port of Spain in Trinidad&Tobago (but no more pax and a well established company) and Ho Chi Minh (lot of pax but with a massive company of more than 1000 flights).

19

Never start in an investment-open country (Trinidad & Tobago). There are couple of other places where you could start.

EDIT: of course luxury is expensive. But as you can raise the prices and your rating is raising also, it is worth to spend the money.

20

Try to avoid direct competition if you just start AS. If you start in a four bar airport, i would suggest using smaller planes first to make sure you have good booking rate. i would suggest using An148 or SSJ before using Tu204, (if you just want to use Russian planes). Getting more regional flights is always a good idea. Maybe flights to Russia and Turkey.

It's also more than just whether there's a airline in another market or not. Since you can 'hijack' PAX in Georgia, other airlines in the same region can do the same thing. If it works, that's great, but if not, still prepare for that.