Tunisia: good country to start in?

Hello!

Hope everyone had a great new year!

I am new to AS and I am trying to start my own airline. I chose Tunisia as a starting country thinking that it would be a great country for a starting airline(and for someone looking to learn AS). I leased 2 new aircraft and began operating point-2-point service within Tunisia(domestic flights), I currently don’t have any competitors. I was hoping that the Tunisian internal market would be big enough to support a few point-2-point lines however, I notice that it is not that big of a market. I only operate flights between Tunis (TUN) to Djerba (DJE) and Monastir (MIR). I tried the other cities within Tunisia but I literally got 0 bookings per flight(I am thinking that these will be better suited for a hub and spoke system.

My strategy was this: find very profitable domestic point-2-point routes. Milk them for money. The money made from these point-2-point flights would help support the expansion of a hub and spoke system based out of Tunis (TUN). However, I have been playing for a few days and so far, the demand appears to be too little for my offer.

I operate 2 A220-100s. I operate 4 daily flights to Djerba (DJE) and 7 daily flights to Monastir (MIR). I am currently attempting 2 experimental flights to Gafsa (GAF) and Sfax (SFA).

I was just curious to have some opinions on the domestic demand of Tunisia and perhaps people who played this country or still play it could also chip in.

Thank you!

please state airline and server to allow people to take a look at your airline.

and a first guess (although little national traffic doesn’t sound wrong to me in your case): check your ORS rating for those flights. if they are negative, it doesn’t matter if there is demand, as you would not receive any pax.

Years ago I suggested Turkmenistan was a good ‘starter’ county for newbies. Probably empty on most if not all servers. Limited international and a decent number of domestic airports gives you the chance to try different things like a/c, fares, seating, service etc, without being penalised in a highly competetive market.

@yukawa: I play on the Gatow server and my airline is World Wild Airlines.

All of my flights are green rated in ORS. TUN to MIR rating of 53 to 61 and TUN to DJE 53 to 62.

I increased my prices because I figured I could squeeze a max amount of money out of people.

Thank you for the suggestion. If I am unable to survive in Tunisia, then I will reset and start in Turkmenistan.

But for now, I plan on sticking it out in Tunisia. I was just curious to get peoples opinions on the demand for domestic service within the country.

so, I have taken a look at your airline.

things I noticed:

  • you are operating CS1 on very short national flights. while using jet planes on short routes for their capacity might be a reasionable move, operating jets purely on those very short hops (particularly those, where taxi times a longer than flight time :wink: ), it will be very hard to turn a profit. since you don’t have any direct competition on the national routes and there is no way for them to fly via a foreign hub (due to distance constraints), you might want to look into aircrafts better suited for such short flights (profit wise).
  • I only took a very brief look at real life flights and I only find connections to Djerba - which sounds reasonable, given the short distances. so, you can expect, that you will need connecting pax from Europe and the rest of Africa to fill up those national routes.
  • while your instinct, to first serve a “protected” market, is a good idea, on such a small market, it will be very tough. you should always consider real life schedules (as they are, at least partly, the basis of AS demand) and also historic ties. if you don’t want to go into too much competition with European airlines, you could look into connecting the western end of the african- mediterreanian (why do I never spell that one right… :-/ ) coast with the eastern end/Middle East
  • in general, connections are king in this game. even if the game gets re-balanced to favor direct connections, the way pax are being distributed, you will always have a benefit if connections are available to fill up your planes. so try to coordinate the direction of flights and their departure/arrival times at your hub
  • keep in mind that the ORS rating for a connecting flight might be very different from the rating for the individual flight legs
  • consider signing ILs. personally, I hardly ever due after starting out. I prefer making sure I have a sound structure to my fleet and flight plan and I don’t like the statistics being distorted by the IL pax, however, some situations might make it a necessity. Be very careful, though. Most airlines flying into TUN at a noteworthy frequency at this time, are major players. Signing an IL with an airline that operates a couple hundred planes might get way more expansive to you, than you could ever hope to get back in return from connecting pax.

and most importantly, don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t work out. We all have re-set and deleted failing airlines over and over again

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Thank you for your great feedback!

My current flights with the CS1 bring in about 2500$AS to 4500$AS per flight(20% to 35%). I’ll try to see if there are any aircraft that I can operate that will bring in more profit on those short hops. As for connections, I was thinking of starting East-west routes since there would be the least amount of competitions and I would be the best airline for that.

Thank you! :slight_smile: