I fly way too much for work and I used to work for an airline so I know a lot about traffic rights IRL but I had a couple of questions about how it worked in game and a few other questions about gameplay in general.
Overseas hub without fifth-freedom:
QF flies JFK-LAX-SYD without cabotage rights on JFK-LAX but they also fly LAX-BNE and LAX-MEL from LAX and passengers from JFK are free to connect to any of the three onward flights to Australia. UA operates a similar system in Australia with their LAX-SYD-MEL and SFO-SYD flights. For example, if I was an Australian airline wanting to fly the Kangaroo Route and flew SYD-SIN-LHR, MEL-SIN-FRA, BNE-SIN and ADL-SIN, (notwithstanding QF’s fifth-freedom rights out of SIN) would my passengers from Australia (including ones from flights without continuing service to Europe) be freely able to transfer in SIN to their flights to Europe?
Cabotage via own country:
IRL, (as an example) American carriers cannot sell tickets between two Canadian cities with a stop/connection in the US, except for as two one-ways. (which would actually be an open-jaw) So UA can’t ticket passengers YVR-EWR-YHZ and AC can’t ticket passengers BOS-YYZ-SEA. In-game, is it possible to operate such a route?
Multi-stop itineraries:
Will "passengers" book itineraries with more than one connection, such as IAH-SFO-HKG-SGN if the price and routing is right?
ETOPS:
Are ETOPS or wind any considerations in-game? I know UA sometimes has to refuel in YQX on the way back to EWR from Europe because of winds and I only know of two carriers (AC and BA) who have scheduled services across the pond in equipment smaller than 757s. In addition, most planes which are not ETOPS 138 certified flying across the Atlantic have to detour around the “black triangle” in the middle of the Atlantic and fly by Iceland or the Azores. Can I just throw all this out the window for the purposes of the game? I’ve noticed loads of 737s (not even 739ERs) flying across the pond.
City airports/CWLCY:
Do passengers actually favour city centre airports like YTZ, LCY or DCA or is the only thing which really matters the green demand bars? I’ve sort of fooled around with the Type Evaluation tool and I haven’t been able to get anything like CWLCY (LCY-SNN-JFK) to make sense financially, even with an all-business class service. I also haven’t been able to get flights like SQ21/22 SIN-EWR to make a profit in Type Evaluation unless I push fares to at least 180%, and that’s with a full load. Do these niche services (which are lovely IRL) just not work in-game?
Loyalty:
Do new airlines need to slash fares, offer better service, etc. to attract customers on a new route or is it all a matter of timing, fewer stops and price if the cabin config and on-board service are the same?
Unfortunately no. If your airline is in Australia and you fly SYD-SIN-LHR. You will only get passengers from SYD. NO additional passengers can join your flight in SIN. This applies to all countries you can fly to other countries only from country in which your airline is based. However, there are few exceptions for European Union (and other treaties read more on wiki) countries where you can fly from country to county which are not where your airline is based.
This is allowed here. You can have passengers going [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]BOS-YYZ-SEA if you are based in Canada or [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]YVR-EWR-YHZ if in USA[/font][/color]
[font=“helvetica, arial, sans-serif”][color="#282828"]3. Yes it is possible. However the ORS rating is so low that no one would fly with 3 stops so you should offer very low prices and very good service (that will not be profitable). [/color][/font]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]4. No ETOPS in this game.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]5. No. Passengers do not care if airport is in the city center or not. You should look at demand bar.[/font][/color]
[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]6. Well short answer no. However you start with your "Image" as 0 but it increases with your first flights to reflect what service you offer. Passengers do not care if your airline started 1 day ago or if it has existed for 3 years. They only care about ORS rating. [/font][/color]
Thanks for the clear reply to all of the above! Regarding #1, I did a bit of further research and I found this update note in the archives:
[indent=1][color=#20304A][font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][size=3]Fixing the bug was simple, but fixing it also presented an opportunity to add a new feature, which AirlineSim has so far been missing. In real life, some airlines operate ‘mini hubs’ at airports abroad; examples include operations by South American airlines in Spain, European airlines in Florida or American airlines in Asia. The airlines have the ability – assuming no additional agreements exist between the second and third countries – to carry passengers from Country A to Country C with a change of flight in Country B without picking up additional passengers in B, effectively enabling them to create connection-based networks at airports outside their own countries. This ability will now be available in AirlineSim, too – hence the ‘feature’ part of today’s title.[/size][/font][/color][/indent]
I guess that answers my question and I can make an overseas “hub” after all as long as I don’t pick up any passengers originating there, which won’t be a problem because I wouldn’t actually use a popular destination like SIN as my overseas hub. (unless something has changed since that entry was written)
Yes if you have an Australian airline you could probably to something like SYD-SIN-LHR, MEL-SIN-CDG,PER-SIN-HKG and thereby have passengers meeting at SIN. However the problem is that SIN is an attractive destination itself, so that ur probalby have some passengers leaving there which will not be available for the connecting flights. So you might wanna pick a smaller airport that offers transfer service…
But could I do something like SYD-SIN-LHR, MEL-SIN, BNE-SIN and fly passengers MEL-LHR and BNE-LHR without flying onward to Europe on the latter two flights?
I have a question on a different note - If your flight’s origin and destination are in the same country, can you have an intermediate stopover in a second country? Examples include:
CDG (Paris Charles de Gaulle, France) --> SIN (Singapore Changi, Singapore) --> NOU (Noumea Tontouta, France).
ANC (Anchorage, USA) --> YVZ (Calgary, Canada) --> ORD (Chicago O’Hare, USA).
I have a question on a different note - If your flight's origin and destination are in the same country, can you have an intermediate stopover in a second country? Examples include:
CDG (Paris Charles de Gaulle, France) –> SIN (Singapore Changi, Singapore) –> NOU (Noumea Tontouta, France).
ANC (Anchorage, USA) –> YVZ (Calgary, Canada) –> ORD (Chicago O’Hare, USA).
JNB (Johannesburg, South Africa) –> MSU (Maseru, Lesotho) –> CPT (Cape Town, South Africa)
Yes you definitely can. I have been offer great Paris - Reunion service at the best midway transfer airport until some airline in France decided to offer Paris to Reunion direct flight.
Regarding your question about 'city airports': I can tell you from own experience that it's almost impossible to make YTZ work. DCA/LGA are a bit different because they have a fairly solid demand on their own and the fact that they cannot accept international pax is not mirrored in the game - so you could (and people do) fly routes like LHR-LGA or CDG-DCA.
YTZ doesn't work outside of good AGEX because the ground transportation to YTZ is something like $20 and 15 minutes, which is completely ridiculous - if it was that easy, cheap and fast to get to Pearson from downtown Toronto Porter Airlines would never have any passengers. And since you can't fly anything more popular than Q400s out of YTZ you find that passengers prefer even YTZ(ground)-YYZ-(737)YUL to YTZ(Q400)-YUL. Forget about linking YTZ to connections out of YUL.
The fact that you can turn up at YTZ 20 minutes before your flight and still check luggage isn't reflected, either. So I'd forget about YTZ.