Hey guys, just need a light with something.
I am playing the game on Quimby, i'm pratically a newbie trying to make things work. My first enterprise I chose Heathrow as my HUB (such an innocent xxxx), is being hard to grow in Europe, so i am thinking of opening a subsidiary elsewhere.
I have studied some countries and i found some almost inexplored markets.
The things i have to clarify are like:
" Would be a problem having my HUB in a 5 bars (passenger demand) airport? "
" What are the really advantages of having a subsidiary? "
" What does it mean "Unrestricted market access"? "
" There is diferences between having a subsidiary or just scheduling flights in other continent from your current Company based on europe? "
I think i have asked everything, hope you all understand =D
And apart of it, my fleet is composed only for IL-18D, thinking about " getting things better " i should change this planes for more popular planes, or should expand my network?
Now i think that's everything :x Thank you, and hope my english was good enough for you to understand =p
Thank You guys o/
Just a couple things to start. First, welcome. It's an enjoyable simulation and it is also frustrating as hell when you start. Don't get discouraged. Everyone fails. I tried off and on for three years before making my first successful airline. Stick with it. Secondly... Quimby is a temporary server. It's there because people wanted a server that would be for a set amount of time only and would allow new players to be able to try different things to see what works. So because of that, resetting your airline when you find you did something wrong is always a choice, and you aren't going to be hurt in the long run.
Now, to try and answer some of your questions...
* A 5-bar passenger demand airport is not going to be easy. For a beginner, I always suggest two things. One.. pick an airport you know and/or like a lot. It will help when you are doing research that you actually like your research subject. Two, don't pick anything less than 7 bars to start. Most of your money, in the long run, will be made with transfer passengers, and profits are key in this simulation. However, you need a good base to start from. Anything below 7 bars really has a difficult time generating enough passengers to cover the last bit of your seats. The lowest I would go is 6.
* Subsidiaries have a few advantages. They can be put on the stock market -- some people don't think this is an advantage, but it's an option. Subsidiaries can also be set up in so-called "free market" countries. Some countries allow foreign investments. If your holding was in China, for example, you couldn't set up a passenger subsidiary in Russia. You wouldn't have passenger rights. However, some countries (a few quick examples: Dominica, Kenya, Honduras) allow you to set up a subsidiary in that country and have passenger rights. Most every free market country is very small and has few, if any, high demand airports. Most have four bars or less.
Free market subsidiaries are probably the most common, but the most practical use for a subsidiary is to set up either a feeder airline or a partner that flies different types of planes. Maintenance costs go up if you have more than three maintenance categories used by your airline. Subsidiaries counteract that by allowing you to choose three more maintenance categories for the subsidiary. Successful feeder airlines are a huge help to keep airlines growing.
* Unrestricted market access is the "free market" as I mentioned earlier.
* Europe has the EU and has certain flight rights. I won't pretend to understand them. But I believe you can fly between any two European agreement countries if your holding is somewhere in a European agreement country. But you can only fly to, and from, a non-European agreement country from your holding country (this is where I'm not 100% sure). For example, if you had your company in Spain, you could fly from Madrid to Paris Orly, Madrid to Algiers, and Paris Orly to London Heathrow. You couldn't, though, fly from Paris Orly to Algiers or Algiers to Cairo.
Most questions of "should I do this with my airline?" cannot really be answered by anyone else but you. The nice thing about Quimby is that you can try out as many different things as you want. See what works and what doesn't. In a few months, they'll either shut it down or reset it and do it all over again.
Once again, welcome aboard.