Cuba advice

Hi there,

I am looking for some advice regarding an airline based in Cuba, I started there last week, on Croydon.

I seem to be doing okay, my domestic flights are doing great and I am looking forward to adding more capacity there. So now the question becomes, where do we go from here. I have thought about some options but since my international flights are doing horrible I am here for some advice.

  • Become a hub between east and west
  • Becoming a hub from north to south is quite difficult due to restrictive flights to United States
  • There is quite a lot of competition in the Caribbean front with many airlines offering hundreds of connections
  • I'm unsure of the size of the domestic-international demand, my flight from Havanna to Port Au Prince did horrible, with less than ten passengers for some time, before I canceled.

Do you guys have any ideas, tips or advice for me? If so, I am looking forward to it!

The airline name is: BraNed Cuba, on Croydon

Edit: I know that Cuba is a tough location, I however like a challenge. Almost all other countries on Croydon are full, or too competitive.

There’s strong demand from Cuba to Canada and some demand from Cuba to large secondary European airports like Paris Orly and London Gatwick. If you have a strong enough domestic network and good interlining agreements, I’d try those routes out.

Thank you JustPlaneBad, I will try to make that work!

Well, without going too deep into the details, have a look at my airline Guevaira on Devau:

http://devau.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/27377?3

Domestic works well indeed, also some other distinct short haul routes, such as Cancun. You need to try over and over again... The money makers are the routes to Mexico City, Canada (without Vancouver - don't ask me why) and the long hauls to Europe. Especially Paris CDG, Amsterdam, Madrid, Moscow and St. Petersburg LED are cash cows, but also Brussels and Lisbon work fine. Finally, my company is alive for more than seven years now, so it is actually possible to survive in Cuba.

At the moment, I am replacing the good old A310-300ET with A330, so don't be confused about the fleet mix. The A313 is quite a good plane to start long hauls from Cuba, as it isn't too large and cheap to acquire, since the AS-usual 737-900ER are too restricted on the routes to Europe.

But be aware, that strong interline-partners in Europe and Canada are vital: on my flights, roughly 80% of all PAX connect in Europe. Additionally, you should be aware, that this concept doesn't necessarily work on other server, due to different environements.

And forget about my A340-500 and the route to PVG - this is an experiment, most likely to become a big, large fail. But I had that plane in the fleet once ;)

Well, without going too deep into the details, have a look at my airline Guevaira on Devau:

 

http://devau.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/27377?3

 

Domestic works well indeed, also some other distinct short haul routes, such as Cancun. You need to try over and over again… The money makers are the routes to Mexico City, Canada (without Vancouver - don’t ask me why) and the long hauls to Europe. Especially Paris CDG, Amsterdam, Madrid, Moscow and St. Petersburg LED are cash cows, but also Brussels and Lisbon work fine. Finally, my company is alive for more than seven years now, so it is actually possible to survive in Cuba.

 

At the moment, I am replacing the good old A310-300ET with A330, so don’t be confused about the fleet mix. The A313 is quite a good plane to start long hauls from Cuba, as it isn’t too large and cheap to acquire, since the AS-usual 737-900ER are too restricted on the routes to Europe.

 

But be aware, that strong interline-partners in Europe and Canada are vital: on my flights, roughly 80% of all PAX connect in Europe. Additionally, you should be aware, that this concept doesn’t necessarily work on other server, due to different environements.

 

 

And forget about my A340-500 and the route to PVG - this is an experiment, most likely to become a big, large fail. But I had that plane in the fleet once :wink:

Thank you! I will try some of your hints out! The largest airline in Mexico rejected my interlining request earlier, one of the reasons why my Cancun flights failed I believe. It had something to do with me not being in the right alliance… Which brings me to a huge irritation of basically twenty or so people owning about 60% of all airlines, all large airlines, which makes beginning as a newcomer incredibly difficult. But that is another issue.

I will try your hints, I just started a flight to Mexico City, incorporated it inside my first hub wave.

I will report back in about a week!

Thank you! I will try some of your hints out! The largest airline in Mexico rejected my interlining request earlier, one of the reasons why my Cancun flights failed I believe. It had something to do with me not being in the right alliance... Which brings me to a huge irritation of basically twenty or so people owning about 60% of all airlines, all large airlines, which makes beginning as a newcomer incredibly difficult. But that is another issue.

I will try your hints, I just started a flight to Mexico City, incorporated it inside my first hub wave.

I will report back in about a week!

I once had a airline in Mexico, and to be honest, I probably would reject the IL-agreement as well. I had flights to all airports in Cuba with 2 or more bars. An IL-agreement with an Cuban airline would than make no sense for me. 

Thank you! I will try some of your hints out! The largest airline in Mexico rejected my interlining request earlier, one of the reasons why my Cancun flights failed I believe. It had something to do with me not being in the right alliance... Which brings me to a huge irritation of basically twenty or so people owning about 60% of all airlines, all large airlines, which makes beginning as a newcomer incredibly difficult. But that is another issue.

I will try your hints, I just started a flight to Mexico City, incorporated it inside my first hub wave.

I will report back in about a week!

The reason it failed is the lack of research on your part. You launched a flight to CUN in direct competition with someone that you wanted to be your partner. The prospective partner has 11 daily flights and according the market analysis is not running fully booked. So in essence your saying on one hand can I be your partner (By your interline request), let on the other hand saying I want to take passengers off your already not full flight (by launching a competing service)