I am in Kai Tak, My airlines flies from hub to two 4-bar passenger airports within the same country. One route has 90% load factor whereas the other one has only 45%. I wonder why?
Could be one of a few reasons. Here are two.
* Someone flies better rated flights than you on the route you're not filling your planes.
* Passengers don't travel to that second airport from your hub. There aren't the same amount of passengers going to every airport. AS uses real traffic data to determine formulas of ratios.
If it’s from real traffic data, some airports can’t have that many bars. for example the annual traffic volume of passenger of CPT Is about 9 million and Durban about 5 million but in AS they are both 6-bar airports, Durban - jnb route has higher load factor than the CPT route . I can’t work this out.
The whole bar rating system isn't on a point-for-point scale. One bar can have a large numerical range. For instance, when you are looking at your rating on the right hand side of your overview page, each green bar (or red bar) actually has a range of 20.0 points of image. So four green bars of image can be anywhere from 60 to 80 points. It's best to use the green bars as a guide, not an end-all-be-all.
To get a better impression about demand at an airport, I use two ways:
1. checking for real data
2. comparing demand on the office overview page
Checking with real data works pretty well, or you can just throw a small CRJ or E-Jet on the route to test the waters. If it doesn't work out, you don't end up losing too much money. Check the ORS religiously once you add a brand new destination to check out the competition.
We can you find websites for checking with real data?
There is some website I know of but I don't use that. I take the shortcut route and look at what equipment real life operators use on routes. If Delta can fly a CR7 on a route, there's a good chance you can too. AirlineSim is actually more connection oriented than real life, so a lot of times you can run (much) larger equipment than real life operators once you establish your hub.
And if United can run a CRJ-200 on a route, there's a good chance you can fly a 738 on it. lol (if you follow the real airline industry, you'll understand the joke)
There is some website I know of but I don't use that. I take the shortcut route and look at what equipment real life operators use on routes. If Delta can fly a CR7 on a route, there's a good chance you can too. AirlineSim is actually more connection oriented than real life, so a lot of times you can run (much) larger equipment than real life operators once you establish your hub.
And if United can run a CRJ-200 on a route, there’s a good chance you can fly a 738 on it. lol (if you follow the real airline industry, you’ll understand the joke)
Go big or go home. UA flies an ERJ-135, I fly a 748 
We can you find websites for checking with real data?
Hi,
flightstats gives you all departing and/or arriving flights for most airports.
Most airports also have a wiki page that tells you which airlines fly to/from that airport and which destinations they fly to.
Whatever information you find, it only gives you an indication... not a guarantee that there is passenger demand for that route in the game. But if there are 5 daily flights between two real airports, there is probably also demand on that route in the game ;-)
Jan
But if there are 5 daily flights between two real airports, there is probably also demand on that route in the game ;-)
I would modify this statement a bit.
If there are 5 real life daily flights between two real airports, there is probably also demand on that route in the game, AND if there is demand in AS on this route than it will be substantial.
I agree.
If there are 5 daily flights between two real airports, and there is demand on that route in the game, you can probably fill 10 daily flights in the game :-)
Jan