Whats up with all the large bankruptcies?
knutm1980:
Quote from: hybridace101 on January 17, 2010, 04:12:14 AM
Finally, going back to the observation that inaction leads to bankruptcy, it's understandable that not everyone will be able to attend to this game all the time. So let's see how we can devise an "autopilot" strategy that will ensure stability while the player is away.
I'm currently just testing out the demo version to see if it's something I enjoy. I have a very tiny but growing airline and it frustrates me a little with this tiny airline that teh game seems to progress rather slow and not a whole lot to monitor, obviously, with a larger fleet I'm sure it would be more things to go through. But in terms of hands on handling of yoru airline, does it get a bit more needy for constant attention? Or could you log on say once, twice a day to make sure things were running smoothly?
hybridace101:
1. It is really a matter of time to see some growth in your airline.
2. I was a bit surprised to know than in a span of 6 "game months," I made my investment on bigger aircraft back. In fact, that is the only aircraft in my fleet and I have more than doubled the money I started with. Having said that, the key is to find "high yield" routes meaning those where there is a sizeable demand for at least some business class seats.
3. Also, you may want to come back from time to time to check if competition has grown in the routes you already established as well as the routes you plan to establish. That could really pose a threat to you or challenge you to rethink your strategy. I don't advise establishing yourself in a place where there is plenty of competition already, at least at the start.
COUGAR:
I had to rebuild Vayudoot from scratch and have just managed to reach back to the levels i was at before: things were going great and I had cash balances in hundreds of millions. And it was so strange that I just couldnt understand what was happening! Maybe some of the others here can help me figure out what happened last time, becoz I am confused as hell.
Heres out it went:Things started going wrong when I decided to replace my fleet of leased ATR's and Airbus A320's with owned planes. My strategy was simple: order XX planes to replace an equal number of planes on lease. I first saved up enough cash to put down a down payment for the order (actually 50% higher: so if i need 200 million down payment, i waited patiently till i had 300 million in cash balance). As each aircraft came in, i took a loan of an amount equivalent to the value of the incoming aircraft. So if the value of each plane was 20 million, then I took a loan of 20m using the new plane as collateral , repayment period 4 years. And so on when each plane entered the fleet. I planned to sell of the planes after a certain period and based on what I worked out, i would be paying 40%-60% less despite loan interest and all that as compared to a leased fleet. by the time the loan was repayed, i would sell of the plane and start over again with a fresh fleet. With a new fleet of average age less than 5 years, i would save enormously on maintenance as well.
This strategy worked fantastically as far as replacing my entire ATR fleet was concerned. But then when i tried the same strategy for my A32X fleet, things started to go horribly wrong! I found that amount of loan i could take even with a plane as collateral went spiralling down, so much so by the time the 5th A321 entered the fleet, the available loan amount even with plane for collateral was down to a few lakhs!
I suspect there is something wrong with the way the loan system works. Can someone explain?
JonesyUK:
There is an upper limit to how much you can loan, even if you have more assets than you currently have loans. I think it's about $400m
schro:
Members of the Owl Alliance get my full airline evaluation for free to help them improve :-)
Couple quick things for you -
1. Max amount you can borrow in the game seems to be about a half billion.
2. High amounts of leverage in this game and real life are high risk. You'd be a much healthier company if you could cashflow the purchases (i.e. buy the planes you're already flying from lessors as their leases run out).
3. Going with #2, high amounts of debt give you very little wiggle room if fuel spiked or you ran into other financial difficulties because you're already maxed out on your credit line. Having fully owned planes is very helpful in a fuel spike, as it gives you a competitive advantage over your competition since your overall costs are lower when everything else is constant. Being highly leveraged puts you at a disadvantage - All I'd have to do as your competitor is task about 10 planes to match demand on your best looking routes, and you'd be out in less than a game year
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