Starter Aircraft

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1

Hello, everyone!

My name is Danny, and I could use some help. Having little success with previous airlines on the older servers and Aspern, I was excited to hear of the release of the new beginners world. I immediately began thinking about my airline hub, name, etc. so the second the world was released, I could found my enterprise. However, I was having some trouble thinking about what my starter aircraft would be, and I'm happy on this world we can use older aircraft, but it made the decision even harder. Here are my options...

Fokker 100

Embraer 170/90

Antonov-148

MD-83

MD-90

Bombardier Q400

Bombardier CRJ 700/900

What are your thoughts? What would you go with?

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Main thing is -- decide what you want to do. This is a beginner's server, so you need to decide what you want to learn with it. Do you want to learn the best possible setup for a big airline? Do you want to have a small regional one and find out what works best with that? Maybe a cargo company. So you want to determine that first... figure out what you want to learn and what's the best way to go about it. Now, for the discussion on what plane is best...

I'm not sure what good used aircraft will be if they are going to use the $10 million immediate delivery system. If that system is going to be used (and I'm pretty sure it will be), you are going to want to get new aircraft right away. Used aircraft will take an hour to get, and you might not win the auction. Someone might outbid you. The advantages of used aircraft are: they are sometimes cheaper, and they are available in one hour if no one outbids you. The immediate delivery program completely removes that... for the first $10 million.

Choosing what kind of plane, for me, is about the third or fourth thing to figure out when starting an airline. First is the hub. Second is the type of airline (worldwide, cargo, regional, continental, puddle-jumper). Third is the types of planes, and that choice really comes down to where the hub is at and the type of airline you'd want to fly. To make it simple... I'll just use the criteria I used for my main airline on Aspern. I chose Kansas City (MCI), because I love KC and all things KC, really. But the big advantages of it are: middle of the country, good local demand (7-bar demand), and within 2400 km from one coast to the other. Knowing these things, I decided to look and see what planes would benefit me the most.

To do this, I wanted to get a plane that would give me that range without losing passengers. I knew I'd be going less than the actual listed number of seats, so I could operate with planes that went as low as 80% weight capacity for 2500 km. That doesn't remove a whole lot from the list of planes. What I did was figure how many planes of each type I could get for $10 million, as well as what kind of general capacity they had. I checked the number of passengers available compared to the amount of money I'd have to spend on: security deposits, seats, and fuel. For my hub, the Embraer 195 was the best choice. However, that doesn't mean it's the right one for you. Here are some other things to keep in mind when you choose your type of plane:

* Keep in mind different planes travel at different speeds. This can make upgrading or downgrading routes difficult. It will be hard for me to go from a E95 to a 73G, which I'd like to do, but will be a tactical nightmare for me. Watch your speeds.

* Maintenance costs go up after the third category. In the beginning, used aircraft go fast, and there's a finite supply (usually). They aren't making 737-300s anymore, and unless the game world is designed differently, there will only be so many to go around. Once they're gone, you'll have to choose something else. It might be okay if you are getting old 737s, but if a dozen people start buying up all the MD-90s and -80s and the 717s, you might end up running out of planes you can actually get. Then, to expand, you'll have to get something else and add another maintenance category.

* Practice, practice, practice. It used to be that people would practice on the old servers. This is a new opportunity for many, many people to really start out practicing, hopefully without a lot of experienced people clogging up the system.

One last thing... and I hope I'm really wrong about this, but did anyone else notice the game world is coming out on April 1st? April Fool's Day? Didn't they have some kind of crazy space one they did a couple years ago on April 1st?

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Generally the "easiest" ones are IMO the Q400 and CR7/9 of the types you listed. Alongside my personal tendency to use McDonnell Douglas-aircraft, caithes is right that the choice of the country/hub and your business-strategy. The aircraft should be able to cope with the demands that you have. So the business "dictates" the types used in some way. Aircraft X works fine for Airline Y while another airline would collapse within a very short time with a wrong fleet-strategy.

It is also a learning-curve. For example I made numerous mistakes with Boeing 757s but I think that I learned enough to schedule 757s correctly. Personally MD-80s are the easiest aircraft for me because I "know" the risks of this type and in most cases I am able to make money with them. This type is a reliable tool for me and compensates mistakes made by me while running my airline.

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Generally the "easiest" ones are IMO the Q400 and CR7/9 of the types you listed. Alongside my personal tendency to use McDonnell Douglas-aircraft, caithes is right that the choice of the country/hub and your business-strategy. The aircraft should be able to cope with the demands that you have. So the business "dictates" the types used in some way. Aircraft X works fine for Airline Y while another airline would collapse within a very short time with a wrong fleet-strategy.

Ok, hopefully some extra information will help. My plan is to start a United States airline. Now, I've never tried this before because the USA has so much competition, but after reviewing how airlines and airports in the US fared on previous servers, I think I have a plan.

My main hub is going to be Raleigh/Durham. It is demand 7, in a central location on the east coast, typically has open slots after several months, and can be used as a gateway to Europe. As I expand, and depending on where other airlines have been founded, I'd like to create bases at Tampa, Detroit, and maybe Portland. 

I was thinking, at least in the beginning, using MD-83s or MD-90s for regional, east-coast operations out of Raleigh would work. What are your thoughts on this? If you need any more info., please let me know.

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RDU is not a bad airport. It's my secondary hub on Aspern, and I've just passed 2000 flights a week originating at RDU. A couple observations about this airport that I've noticed:

* The north-south routes are pretty good. You have LGA, JFK, EWR, PHL, BOS all up north, and all the Florida airports (MIA, FLL, JAX, RSW, TPA, and PBI) with heavy traffic. You also have some medium routes going northwest and southwest that have good traffic. Not to mention a few close-by airports if you need something short to round out your schedule (BWI, IAD, DCA, CLT, ORF). Once you get those filled up, though, there's not many other airports to expand to. A few here and there, but with the Atlantic Ocean right there to your right, there's no east-bound traffic until you get flying into Europe.

* I'm not sure the range on the MD-80s or 90s, as they're not present on Aspern. You can fly 100 seat Embraers from RDU as far out as Denver without problems. So if the MDs have general max load ranges around 1500 or 2000 km, you really should be fine. Most routes are going to be in the 600-1150 km range from RDU. I know the MDs run about 140 pax or so when given better seats, so hopefully there should be enough MDs to go around.

* There are some definite routes you should pick up first. There will be double slots available, and double demand, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get your times, but certain routes run very well through RDU (like EWR, TPA, DTW, DFW), while others don't run so great (CVG, PIT) unless you have good connections.

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@caithes

You exactly described not only the thought process I went through, but both the same HUB and aircraft type as my airline on the new server (assuming it isn’t a really bad April fools prank). I might switch to a different hub though. In any case I hope that means great minds think alike and not the opposite 8)

That aside… I have only tried starting airlines on older servers, so this will be a first attempt for me. Out of curiosity have any of you started an airline with long haul routes and been successful? Im talking 5-7,000km or more. I was considering it, but thought it a bit too risky as I predicted it would rely to heavily on interlining past the initial stages of launch.

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Could anyone please point me to the announcement of the new server? I can´t find anything about it... :huh:

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Could anyone please point me to the announcement of the new server? I can´t find anything about it... :huh:

http://en.airlinesim.aero/portal/2014/03/21/new-prices-and-game-world-starting-1st-april/

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Cheers! :)

EDIT: And thanks for reminding me to fill up my credits... :P

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@DBreslow: 

caithes wrote a fine answer. The majority of my MD-80s operate with less than 140 seats but a new configuration will be gradually introduced to provide 142 seats. This capacity not only allows an enhanced comfort but also allows to make better use of the possible range with full  payload (142pax + baggage etc.). 

Regards

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@caithes

You exactly described not only the thought process I went through, but both the same HUB and aircraft type as my airline on the new server (assuming it isn’t a really bad April fools prank). I might switch to a different hub though. In any case I hope that means great minds think alike and not the opposite 8)

That aside… I have only tried starting airlines on older servers, so this will be a first attempt for me. Out of curiosity have any of you started an airline with long haul routes and been successful? Im talking 5-7,000km or more. I was considering it, but thought it a bit too risky as I predicted it would rely to heavily on interlining past the initial stages of launch.

Starting a long-haul-first airline on an older server will be impossible. First, there will be a lot of people already flying that route or something similar, and their connections will be better. As you said, unless you get some absolutely great interlining the first few days on the server, I feel a long-haul-first airline is doomed to failure.

Unfortunately, starting a long-haul-first airline on a new server is also just about impossible. It isn't fully impossible because if your hub is in a high demand airport, for instance LHR, and you immediately fly on a very high demand route (like CDG, JFK, etc), at the beginning of the server you might fill your flights on a large narrow-body or any wide-body aircraft. But you are soon going to need either feeder routes or good interlining to keep that flight full and profitable. I think you'll find that the most successful airlines stay away from long-haul routes until they are firmly established in their own countries.

You seem to have a good plan in place, or at least you're putting the pieces together to form a very stable and strong plan. I think you'll do fine if you stick to it.

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I was thinking, at least in the beginning, using MD-83s or MD-90s for regional, east-coast operations out of Raleigh would work.

It is only a small detail in airlinesim but the MD-83 has no ability to lift cargo. I think that most missions from RDU in the eastern part of the USA up to the Rockies can be accomplished with MD-82s and MD-88s. The higher range-performance of the MD-83 could be useful to touch California however. I think that MD-80s could work well from RDU.

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It is only a small detail in airlinesim but the MD-83 has no ability to lift cargo. I think that most missions from RDU in the eastern part of the USA up to the Rockies can be accomplished with MD-82s and MD-88s. The higher range-performance of the MD-83 could be useful to touch California however. I think that MD-80s could work well from RDU.

Thanks for all of your help guys. With your information I was able to more solidify my plans for the new server.

I will start as a single-hub airline with operations only out of RDU. I will fly mostly North-South routes, connecting the East Coast, and will then move onto a new hub. I will come back to operating out of RDU once I have the connecting passengers and planes needed to run routes into Europe. For all flights out of RDU, I will be able to operate MD-83s and MD-90s, considering I am not flying routes West of the Mississippi River.

Now that there is both double slots and double demand, here are my ideas for new hubs once I'm operating routes to most 5+ bar airports on the East Coast. Please share with me your thoughts on this list;

Seattle/Tacoma (Demand 9, but typically has Major Airlines)

Portland (Demand 7, plenty of Slots)

San Francisco (Demand 9, has Major Airlines)

Houston Intercontinental (Demand 10, has Major Airlines)

Tampa (Demand 8, always has Slots)

Baltimore (Demand 8, sometime has Slots)

Chicago Midway (Demand 8, typically has few slots)

Detroit (Demand 9, typically has slots)

Also, one more thing. I live in New Jersey, in the USA, and my time zone is Eastern Standard. Is the new server launched at 12:01 on April 1st Germany time, or 12:01 on April 1st EST (which would be 6:01 AM in Berlin)?

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First, don't stick to only north-south routes. There are some airports that are pretty good connections to RDU that are northwest/southwest, including MSP, MDW, ORD (big one), DFW (another big one), and IAH. Don't limit yourself. Control your hub. Beat out the competition. Don't limit yourself by saying I won't fly past this point. Keeping a range limit is okay, but there are some big airports just over the Mississippi River you shouldn't count out because of it.

Considering the list of airports... what you have as their slots availability isn't something to go on. Each server fills up slots in a different way. Right now, on Aspern, my hub is at about 90% filled, but the same exact size airport (passenger and cargo), only 180 miles away, is at about 30% filled. Don't make the choice on the second hub until you are ready to choose the second hub. Things can change. I chose RDU as my second hub basically because only 15% of the slots had been filled when I was ready to expand.

And in regards to the time, unless you are gone for days at a time, I wouldn't worry about it. I actually had to restart on the second day Aspern was open, I was originally like the tenth person on Aspern, but I messed up so my starting day is 11/27 not 11/26. Even starting one day late, I've worked myself to being currently the #5 airline in the USA, and should be #3 within two weeks.

Though, I guess, with the used aircraft, they could go really fast... maybe it would be good to know :D