Volume or variety?

This is probably an age-old question of balance, but which is better: volume (lots of flights to one airport) or variety (fewer flights to more airports)? Can smaller airports (6-bar or fewer) handle 6 flights a day to the same destination?

It depends on many factors (country, city pairs, competition etc. Small airports (6-bar or fewer) can handle more than 6 flights per day to the same destination if demand is there. ;)

So in an increasing-demand world, follow the Fibonacci sequence, then? 1,then 1,then 2,3,5,8,13… LOL

It is kind of academic discussion...

I had an airline in Pakistan and from all 3 "major" cities I was flying with 737-900 HGW to for example UK destinations 10 times a day. To BOM and DEL 25 times a day. To DXB countless times... So yes, it is possible to make small cities work.

If you have the slots go volume! I was flying CRJs hundreds of times daily in Ecuador!

This is probably an age-old question of balance, but which is better: volume (lots of flights to one airport) or variety (fewer flights to more airports)? Can smaller airports (6-bar or fewer) handle 6 flights a day to the same destination?

Variety! I would always connect an airport to all main airports of the country. Why should I leave any routes to my competitors?

Another question is frequency vs. larger aircraft. Higher frequency gets more bookings (that´s how AS works); but larger aircrafts often have lower per-seat costs.

6 flights a day also works for 4-bar or even 3-bar-airports - depends of the country where you are playing.

6 flights a day also works for 4-bar or even 3-bar-airports - depends of the country where you are playing.

What if my hub is a 4 bar airport? I find it hard to support 4 bar to 4 bar with serious volume.

It is all about transfer pax. The airport your hub is at is not very important in the end

A first, go with variety. After you succeed, go with volume. 

Variety! I would always connect an airport to all main airports of the country. Why should I leave any routes to my competitors?

Another question is frequency vs. larger aircraft. Higher frequency gets more bookings (that´s how AS works); but larger aircrafts often have lower per-seat costs.

6 flights a day also works for 4-bar or even 3-bar-airports - depends of the country where you are playing.

As long as your flights are full and it doesn't matter, you will sooner or later be running out of slots (don't intentionally slots block because we will chase you). It is better if you have 3000 flights per week that are full than having 2000 perfectly waved flights with your competitor having 1000. Sure you will need waves when you go long haul but sometimes you can make much more money domestic than Long haul. For example in China I fly 6000 A320 and A321 flights per week with no whatsoever wave structure and I fill them at 90%. How you may ask? It is all about collaborating with competitors and offering a superior service to attract the extreme domestic demand. What I have experienced especially in China on Stapleton is that we all IL with each other, everybody are friends and we are better able to cover the market and fill our planes. This is in great contrast to the US on Stapleton where I need perfect wave and fantastic connections to fill my planes. There is also the difference that in the US there is one player dwarfing all us other but in China we pretty equally sized. So my suggestion is don't try to steal from your competitor but be friends with them and you both will fill your planes. 

What if my hub is a 4 bar airport? I find it hard to support 4 bar to 4 bar with serious volume.

It is hard, but possible. For example, one of my airlines flies Port Moresby-Darwin (both are 4 bar airports) 17x daily with A319 with a load factor of nearly 100%. This works only with a lot of transfer pax. Actually the share of connecting passengers at my POM hub is 96%.

It is hard, but possible. For example, one of my airlines flies Port Moresby-Darwin (both are 4 bar airports) 17x daily with A319 with a load factor of nearly 100%. This works only with a lot of transfer pax. Actually the share of connecting passengers at my POM hub is 96%.

Hah, I wish I could service that. Unfortunately I just started playing AirlineSim a few months ago. This hub is Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar), and is the largest airport in the country with 4 bars. I have strict hub waves but am really limited on transfers because the airport's capacity is 3 flights per 5 minutes! Since most other players had a head start on me, and they're serving more lucrative markets like China and Indonesia, my ability to compete as a transfer-based airline seems limited.

Hah, I wish I could service that. Unfortunately I just started playing AirlineSim a few months ago. This hub is Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar), and is the largest airport in the country with 4 bars. I have strict hub waves but am really limited on transfers because the airport's capacity is 3 flights per 5 minutes! Since most other players had a head start on me, and they're serving more lucrative markets like China and Indonesia, my ability to compete as a transfer-based airline seems limited.

You dont need a headstart, as long as you have the slots you should be fine. In China and Indonesia you can easily serve many airports with just direct traffic thereby connections are not needed until you have over 50 A320s. You can also start a fairly large airline with great hubs in already congested markets. Though if you are not that good at the game i suggest playing in a place without competition and learning the basics. For example I started fairly large carriers in US and UK with my competitors having a 5 year head start. 

you can even fill three or four daily flights to one bar airports…

just take planes with right capacity, eg atr