Beginners Problems

Hello,

I started my airline empire a few days ago. It is called "FlyRomantica".

I created a hub in Rotterdam with quite good connection flights.

There are two banks for each east-west and west-east, the connecting times are around one hour,

the minimum transfer time is 0:45. So this should be fine, shouldnt it?

The planes are ATR 72s and one ATR 42. The prices are still at the standard rate as i thought i could

impress some passengers with low prices in the beginning.

I know that Rotterdam is not a very popular destination in the game but a good hub should fix this, shouldnt it?

However, my Planes are deadly empty. Well, i reach about 10% in Economy and 50% in Business, but thats far

away from what i expected.

What am I doing wrong? Should i start at a big airport even if there is so much competition?

There is an atached file with my actual flight map. All the flights from east arrive at the same time and exit to the west about one hour later.

Greets,

Max

Have you checked your ORS ratings? Especially in the beginning a main portion of your traffic would come from direct passengers.

You won't get any traffic from the connecting flights, or it is very unlikely, as these places will have direct connections anyway. The airlines flying these routes will have fantastic ORS ratings and the planes themselves will be faster, bigger and more comfortable. For example, a bigger airline is probably already flying direct routes between the Dublin, London and Prague and so there is no point for these passengers to take your flights and take a connection. Also, yes Rotterdam is only a 4 bar airport and the direct demand won't be very high. 

Actually you can build huge airlines on 4 bar airports living off connection traffic alone, and doing so quite profitably. Just look on Bird airline on Kaitak, or on smaller scale Transsib Air on Idlewild, with 80% load factor with not so luxury seating and AGEX in low 700.

Having said that, for a newbie Europe or USA or China is the worst place to start and learn. I would suggest OP to look for uncontested country on one of the legacy worlds with the exception of Riem, however less appealing that may sound, and learn the ropes there, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, Thailand, Chile Perú, Nigeria, Egypt, etc. Even South Korea is frequently empty. All these countries have very large domestic market, are easy to learn the basics create and test some strategies, and usually come wide open or with very little competition. And last but not least, all of them offer possibilities to build airlines with several hundred of aircraft.

https://idlewild.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/74293?4

Could someone give me some advice on my airline? 

https://idlewild.airlinesim.aero/app/info/enterprises/74293?4

 

 

Could someone give me some advice on my airline?

Ok I had a quick look at your enterprise

First

AGEX is quite low right now, so it’s a tough time to start. Not impossible just tough, however you’ll be fighting an uphill battle in Bolivia. Domestic traffic is weak at best, meaning you’ll be relying on connections. On Idlewild this will be difficult as you are surrounded by dominant airlines with large fleets and high ORS ratings.

Second

You need to get your ORS ratings up, and use potentially more profitable aircraft. ATRs are not helping you here, especially the 42. Not a very profitable aircraft in the first place, and does not help your ORS Ratings. Older Jets would be better than Props unless you need the short field capability. If I were starting in Bolivia, I’d probably start with a small fleet of CRJs.

I can probably give you a bit more advice via PM if you like.

I know I'm not a beginner, but how would you say Canadian Express is doing (in the signature)? As much as I think it's doing well, growth seems a bit, er, slow to me.

I found Venezuela to be a good test bed for strategies. I grew an airline there for at least a year and had 100+ aircraft including long haul flights