I am a new player and would like to ask your thoughts on a good starting strategy for Israel.
I gather it must be a more challenging place as on a lot of servers there are no players on its market. Possibly due to forbidden connections to other states.
I have read on other threads as well as on the guide blog that connections are the key and that domestic market as well as connection base must be grown substantially before going international/medium haul.
Given that most of European destinations are fair away from TLV does it make sense to start servicing them with smaller planes also in the beginning? Domestic destinations are only Eilat and Ovda.
I can get pretty decent profit from Eilat but pretty much anything else gets 1/2 % of load i.e. Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow and so on.
The guide mentions the information that the flight is being booked through the three booking cycles if left to be activated after 72 hours, hence it has a chance to fill up more when left in bookable state. Is it worth to keep the flight even if after first cycle it shows tiny numbers like 1/2/3 persons booked - or it is a clear indication that this route is a no go at this point in time?
I was thinking that maybe connecting southern states through my hub in TLV like Addis Ababa would funnel some of its pax to my European destinations.
Would be grateful for any tips on how to start up there. Mainly on how to generate profit until the company gets more viable for possible partners to sign Interlining agreement. Most of them want to wait until an airline has been there for a while.
Thanks in advance!
The guide mentions the information that the flight is being booked through the three booking cycles if left to be activated after 72 hours
TLV has significant O/D demand to the US and many places in Europe. But to make it work, you need to setup good interlining arrangements at the other end. eg for you TLV-JFK to work, you need to have good feed to/from JFK by a US partner.
I was for about one Year @TLV on Pearls, quite successful.
As you have lots of traffic redtrictons to almost every islamic country (except Jordania, Egypt) it is hard to generate Domestic travellers. As in every strategy try to connect the Domestic market with dense connections (every hour), so you generate passengers in every time. Operate to UK and western Russia, also almost every bigger Airport in Europe is running. Don’t make the Mistake to start Longhaul operations too early - you need almost 2000 weekly departures to fill widebodies.
Demand between TLV and US east coast is strong. If there is little competition on that route already you have a good shot at that route even with few connections. You should try to find a strong IL partner in the US though. ADD is a good idea. You should also try DEL/BOM when you have built up connections to western Europe.
Demand between TLV and US east coast is strong. If there is little competition on that route already you have a good shot at that route even with few connections. You should try to find a strong IL partner in the US though. ADD is a good idea. You should also try DEL/BOM when you have built up connections to western Europe.
Thank you very much for your suggestion.
Is there a way in the simulation to check the "demand" for the specified route, or you need to test it with an aircraft to know for sure?
So far I have very good demand both for Larnaca and Amman, but not anything else really. With some ILs I made recently, demand for DME and SVO started to grow as well as for FCO.
You have to test demand with an aircraft. I usually tend to have a "test"-aircraft, which runs test to new airports from time to time. Although that's quite expensive in the beginning of the game.
As Tal0n mentions, try KBP (Kyiv). My Ukrainian company has 20 departures every single day. :-)