I started an airline in Nicosia with a hub in Asunción, a pretty unserved market, using five Embraer E145XR.
I’ve put 45 comfort (or something like that) seats in it, but the break-even point is too high. I can only fill the aircraft if I low the prices by like 10-20%. If I do that, though, I will have a negative margin even with a 100% occupation.
So what do you guys think: would the effects of putting five more seats be so negative to the passengers that they would avoid my flights, would I finally get some profit or should I restart the game?
My advice would be to install less seats than you have now and raise the prices. Watch out for your ORS rating and make sure you get one that is as high as possible (99).
The seat I use now is Leisure Plus. Should I maintain it, so, while taking out some of them? If yes, how much?
The other option I have is the Recliner Shorthaul. The maximum seats in this case would be 30, which I think it's a very small number, and my price would have to increase a lot to have some profit, innit?
Do you mean RSH in the economy class? Really? I've been always kind of afraid to put such seats in the economy. The best seats I've ever put were Comfort Plus, but I prefer just Comfort.
Do you mean RSH in the economy class? Really? I've been always kind of afraid to put such seats in the economy. The best seats I've ever put were Comfort Plus, but I prefer just Comfort.
Welcome to the fantasy world of AS... passengers are not price-sensitive at all
This would be by far the biggest thing to fix (to make it more real) but obviously anyone likes to live in a fantasy world.
Do you mean RSH in the economy class? Really? I've been always kind of afraid to put such seats in the economy. The best seats I've ever put were Comfort Plus, but I prefer just Comfort.
Comfort seats are wider than rsh, which usually makes you lose one seat per row, meaning that the total passanger capacity will be just a bit lower with rsh than with comfort seats. While the seating rating itself is better, rsh also have quite a good seat pitch which you'd want for your image anyways.
Implementing price sensitivity would be awesome, but it would also be extremely difficult to find an equilibrium to still make the game playable.
If the cheapest prices gets the most passengers, then it would just lead to a race to the bottom. Who would remain to make any money? How would you implement that you can lower your cost?
It would be a pandora box and very hard to control.
I guess it's safe to say that the current setting is not something worth to keep. I know more than one player who quit the game because he thinks this has absolutely nothing to do with a realistic simulation because of that.
I agree that it might not be that easy to find the equilibrium but as the ORS basically is a formula (at least how I understand it) it wouldn't be that difficult to tweak a bit. And just because it's not that easy we shouldn't aim for a more realistic solution? I think just increasing the influence of a lower price would work in the right direction, there's no need to completely calculate flight ratings differently.
"If the cheapest prices get the most passengers, then it would just lead to a race to the bottom. Who would remain to make money? How would you implement that you can lower your costs"?
Well... welcome to the real world. Or did I miss the evolution of the airline industry in the past 20 years? It's just a matter of adjusting your strategy and capacity. What I don't understand: Why does everyone thinks it's a right "to make money"? Is there a rule? And hey - if you don't make money quit flying! (Oh, this must be a completely new thought to some...)
"It would be a pandora box and very hard to control"
This is complete nonsense, sorry. The market will find it's new equilibrium, but maybe some current strategies might not work anymore. I did not even suggest how much price sensitivity should be implemented, there's room for discussion.
Is it just me who thinks (for quite some time now...) that the most experienced players are also the ones most reluctant to new ideas?
Today, market researchers and airlines know exactly what influences customers when choosing a flight. Why should this game not go in this (more realistic) direction? It can't be too difficult and will not open any pandora box.
I do not want to stress the feature of booking classes, as we haven't heard any news on that one in quite a while, however, this should help to negate some of the current problems. one thing, however, will always remain, and that is the benefit of frequency.
Comfort seats are wider than rsh, which usually makes you lose one seat per row, meaning that the total passanger capacity will be just a bit lower with rsh than with comfort seats. While the seating rating itself is better, rsh also have quite a good seat pitch which you'd want for your image anyways.
Well, for CS 100 it's less capacity with rsh than with Comfort or Comfort + since RSH is longer, so you can't fit as much rows as with Comfort
Do you mean RSH in the economy class? Really? I've been always kind of afraid to put such seats in the economy. The best seats I've ever put were Comfort Plus, but I prefer just Comfort.
I said the same thing ones upon a time considering switching from my RSH economy seats to comfort plus. Thankfully George convinced me out of it giving me a very long explanation with a ton of formulas concluding that at the ideal price point for top rating more money can be made (per space used) with RSH and he is right.
Impressive, those numbers make me feel like a baby. So much money can only come from a Chinese monopoly.
Not really :-)
I am actually the third airline in China, both in fleet size as in transported passengers, with a fleet of 500 something aircraft.
And I never play monopoly... I have a few subsidiaries in open markets, and even in those countries where I am the only operator I use less than half of the slots. There's always room for another airline.
Besides, if you offer quality seats and service, you shouldn't be poor yourself either ;-)
That all sounds quite attractive to me actually lol, but even if I consider switching to RSH, I’ll need to experiment with the price by myself (hint hint) and that’s something I am scared of in the very beginning of my airline with 4 CS100 (I have just finished my first week with 16% margin)
That all sounds quite attractive to me actually lol, but even if I consider switching to RSH, I'll need to experiment with the price by myself (hint hint) and that's something I am scared of in the very beginning of my airline with 4 CS100 (I have just finished my first week with 16% margin)
Hi,
for your information… short haul recliners allow me to sell tickets at:
default + 42% on routes under 800 km,
default + 46% on routes between 800 and 1500 km,
default + 50% on routes over 1500 km.
With these prices I still get an ORS rating of 99 (or 100 on the wide bodies).
A few remarks…
All planes that use the same seats and the same on-board service should get the same rating if you use the same price setting. I suggest you experiment with 2 routes for each on-board service, and fiddle with the prices until you get the ORS rating you want (I always aim at 99). If you are happy with the 2 routes you have checked, you can use the price setting tool to change all economy prices for that on-board service.
Secondly, my airline image for economy is 84. If your airline image is lower, you may have to lower your prices. The same goes for your on-board service. Better service allows for higher prices, lower quality service means you’ll have to sell your tickets cheaper.
And finally, if you start an airline on the Tempelhof server, I shall lease you 20 planes at minimum price. That’s 10% (actually 15%) of the book value.
