USA Troubles...

Hello all,

I've been playing airlinesim for now over 1 year ish. I've ran sucessful airlines in Europe, Africa and Asia. I've gotten bored with my old airline so decided to start anew. 

I've alaways wanted to try and have an American airline however the whole game in America seems far different from what I'm used to playing and straegy wise. I know people say go for the 'trunk routes' but thats near impossible to when your just starting out and have a 2 bar image against a legacy airline with 5. I've had a couple of airlines but to no luck.

Any help or strartegy advice would be greatly appericated as I literlly have no idea how to operate in this market. 

My Airline: https://croydon.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/81750?36&tab=0

Many Thanks,

Benny.

Tour best chances are if you can get used aircraft like 737 classics or MD 80’s, then used tight waves in scheduling, with hub in a centric location. Interlines with other USA airlines would also help.

One important thing that’s missing in your post: it might help if you say what exactly is not working for you strategy-wise in the USA that worked for you in Europe. I run USA airlines on two servers, including #1 USA airline on Idlewild, so my knowledge is vast… If you say what’s not working for you, then we we could see if you’re missing out on strategies that could work.

Personally what I found to be an effective strategy for me was flooding the market 737-300/400s and using 757-200 IGWs  for Transatlantic. The biggest thing is where you airline has it's hub.

LOL flooding… You cannot “flood” market with 20 737s. You can build a strong startup hub and spoke network though. You should steer clear of incumbents for as long a source can, fly under the radar as long as you can. Start a spamline at major hubs and the incumbents will spam you double or triple. They can afford to run losses ona few routes for weeks even months, you can not. Also, 757 is not the best startup aircraft to go against monopolies or duopolies.

Tour best chances are if you can get used aircraft like 737 classics or MD 80's, then used tight waves in scheduling, with hub in a centric location. Interlines with other USA airlines would also help.

One important thing that’s missing in your post: it might help if you say what exactly is not working for you strategy-wise in the USA that worked for you in Europe. I run USA airlines on two servers, including #1 USA airline on Idlewild, so my knowledge is vast… If you say what’s not working for you, then we we could see if you’re missing out on strategies that could work.

What i used to do is start with the q400 on underserved routes to hubs with little or no compeition then build from there. For example running a Faro - Lisbon route in Portugal. I just feel that the whole way you approach the USA is different to that of the other game. I'm really struggling, also i've never used MD 80's or classic 737's so not sure how well they operate. 

Do you think i should restart my airline? Or maybe move it from another location than Dallas Love Field?

Many Thanks,

Ben.

I would move it to BNA, start with 737 classics if available, if not then with MD 80’s. Good seats and good service profiles, tight waves every 6 hours… Very tight.

For example running a Faro - Lisbon route in Portugal

I think the harder entry into the US market comes mostly from much larger distances between the destinations which brings a lot of competition through other connecting flights. The ORS is not really your friend in that regard. Europes airports are much closer together so there are a lot more city pairs to be found that don't have X amount of connections competing.

Perhaps trying to stay within one State could help in the beginning. Plan your routes with the help of the ORS and enable "Ignore full and ineligible connections"

If no flight shows up (including no connections, which is important), chances are very high the route will work out. Find trunk routes that can build a revenue stream and serve as connections. Space departure waves carefully to get as close to a 100% maintenance ratio while having perfect connection timings. 

Drawback of those shorter flights is the small margin so the beginning is a bit of a grind. However, unless you can find a strong IL partner chances are you are going to loose money on longer flights anyway.

This is not a good advice… I will provide more input later on

This is not a good advice...

Regardless, it worked for me (especially when no large quantities of cheap used aircraft are available) and was a suggestion to the OP. Whether or not he chooses to pursue it is his decision.

When people ask for help in the forum, everybody is free to provide what they deem is "good advice". Your attitude towards other posts is unnecessary.

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ok, so here are my comments

I think the harder entry into the US market comes mostly from much larger distances between the destinations which brings a lot of competition through other connecting flights. The ORS is not really your friend in that regard. Europes airports are much closer together so there are a lot more city pairs to be found that don't have X amount of connections competing.

USA can be much better in Europe, because longer average stage length of flights gives you a bigger margin. 0-800 km flights are the least profitable ones, and in Europe you run many of them... a big number actually. In the USA, you have many 800-1500 km flights, and 1500-2500 km flights which are the most profitable actually.

Perhaps trying to stay within one State could help in the beginning. Plan your routes with the help of the ORS and enable "Ignore full and ineligible connections"

You actually want to see if there is a lot of traffic on a trunk route and all is full ... so maybe you also can get some overflow pax. Ignoring full connection makes no sense if you are trying to find good trunk routes.

If no flight shows up (including no connections, which is important), chances are very high the route will work out. Find trunk routes that can build a revenue stream and serve as connections. Space departure waves carefully to get as close to a 100% maintenance ratio while having perfect connection timings. 

You want to get as tight wave as possible at the expense of the maintenance ratio. Some tight waves may end up giving you 200% MR. On a cheap used 15-20 year old plane this is no biggie. It's necessary to have logic in wave planning (arrivals form the east connecting to westbound departures).

Drawback of those shorter flights is the small margin so the beginning is a bit of a grind. However, unless you can find a strong IL partner chances are you are going to loose money on longer flights anyway.

Why would he lose money on longer flights? Longer flights are much more profitable than shorter flights, and he can make more money with fewer passengers on a longer flight than with more passengers on a shorter flight. You've got this somehow confused and reversed ...

So would you recommended to have comfort seats in economy?

Also fly BNA to DCA and other trunk routes like that from BNA?

Many thanks for the help so far.

I would even go better than comfort. And yes fly to large airports from BNA, but at tight waves, and combining East West North South pattern for each aircraft. Also try to have as many flights arriving from a single direction as possible during each wave and then departing to the opposite direction. Instead of 5 flights coming from east going west and 5 coming from west going east, try to have 10 coming from east going west etc.

It’s a simple math. 5x5 + 5x5 = 50, while 10x10 = 100. By simple change in pattern of scheduling you double the number of possible connections with the same number of flights and aircraft.

I'm eager to learn more, so input is appreciated. Let me just clarify some things that I may have not written well enough.

so maybe you also can get some overflow pax. Ignoring full connection makes no sense if you are trying to find good trunk routes.

With the above mentioned option enabled, it is my understanding that the ORS shows me all direct flights and connections that are eligible for passenger bookings during the next update.

If I'm looking for potential destinations and a city pair shows 500 - 1,000 bookable flights or connections, it is extremely unlikely I get more than a few passengers, which brings me to this:

make more money with fewer passengers on a longer flight than with more passengers on a shorter flight. You've got this somehow confused and reversed

I still need a good amount of passengers to make some money on the flight. As a new airline my connection rating is much lower than those of established airlines.

I have to admit though, I always challenged myself to use somewhat realistic seating configurations, so for me it was always building up a sustainable base network with short uncovered routes and expand little by little by staying ahead through good scheduling and wave timing (unless the server just started). This is much harder (for me) in the US because of the larger distances and the resulting competition through other airlines networks. Perhaps "Comfort Plus" would make it suddenly a walk in the park, I should probably try.

Try ReclinerShorthaul… makes it perhaps a walk in the sunshine.

US market is actually very easy. Try to get a presence in all major hubs and trunk routes with a fantastic image and rating. If you have a good strategy getting a good rating is easy and economical. Try to serve all trunk routes and you will be fine. I bet you can use at least 100 A320s before you need to think about hubs.

US market can be easy or in low AGEX time quite difficult. I started my first airline in USA when a large Denver-based airline liquidated, so it was easy to come in to fill the gap. There was a large competitor but slots and demand was enough to fill his and mine planes. At the time of liquidation I had 2500 departures out of Denver and making 20 mil a week.

My second attempt was when AGEX was in 700s and it was not easy to get the airline running. Here I wrote about that venture 

http://community.airlinesim.aero/topic/10655-fly-america-newsthread/