I’ve noticed that there are different ways of setting up your airline in your country.
From what i know:
Point-to-Point: no clear times…planes fly as much possible with no real coordination.
HUB system: a highly coordinated way of operating an airline. allowing for transfer passengers and more destination options.
Now, a Point-to-Point system usually doesn’t work out for airlines that operate only on that since it’s very difficult to keep the airline running…a HUB system on the other hand seems to be working for many airlines that use it. But I was wondering, wouldn’t a Half-and-Half system be the best way to operate an airline? This system would have a HUB system set up but would also use a Point-to-Point. I was wondering if any airline owner here was operating this way? Maybe someone would like to share their experience/feelings about this mixed system.
Hi - that’s actually why I joined Airline Sim! I was always intrigued by the strengths in the different models. I haven’t had much luck yet(!) with either because I haven’t really worked out how to be successful in the game at all but hopefully this time!
As I fly around in real life - I’ve always wondered what the future really is (and it’s probably both) given that the big aircraft manufacturers were at one time banking on different strategies - the A380 is for hub operations - the dreamliner for point-to-point.
Anyway - no answers, but I agree that you’ve asked a good question!
I’ve used a point to point but horribly failed but then i used a hub system but it didn’t work out too well…so i’m currently starting over in a much more open market with lots of destinations…hopefully this will work out better. I’m going to try to start with a hub system then add some point to poin in popular routes…hopefully that works out well
The vast majority of my flights are hub and spoke. Only a few of my routes generate enough demand to be operated without a hub. The big advantage is that a hub generates a huge amount of connections for a high percentage of my passengers. For me it is also an easier way to schedule the planes efficiently.
I would say that everyone actually starts as a point to point and in time changes to hub system.
I would also say that a point to poin is possible but only in big markets with a lot of high demand routes where you "steal" the PtP passengers from bigger competitors (much like low cost airlines do now).
This might be correct but most airlines here start at an hub and after a few flights the effect of the hub is (hopefully) evident. So your are right but a a hub needs an airport with the capability to be used a s a hub.
One issue is when an airline is just getting started, it’s much more difficult to have a very good hub because of the low amount of destinations per time wave so it makes the hub less interesting…it only becomes much better when there are over 15 destination choices per time wave.
Right now, i have a hub set up in a good city in a great country…i see some of my routes are being filled by transfer passengers but a large majority of my flights are filled by direct passengers…i think that this is the key element into the understanding of AS and managing to survive for a very long time. I am also playing in a game world(fornebu) that has some very tough competition and lots of monopoles in many markets…so that adds to the difficulty of managing an airline!
If you insist on starting with a hub you can do what I did when I had an airline in Central Europe - I leased a lot of small planes and made them all go to West and North, then return and they went to East and South. If you don’t get a 737 and bigger you can easily get ten or more planes at the start. They are just fairly small