Multi-hub rules

[EYguy]

Hi everybody!

I've spent some days looking through the forum and reading lots of posts about the future V1.2 versione of this game and the multi-hub strategy.
There are a few things I would like to point out before the roll out of the game 1.2:
-will the new hubs (commonly called "focus cities") be allowed everywhere or only in the same country?
-will the new hubs allowed in every country of Europe or there will be an evolution of the transport regulation laws as happened in the real world?
-will be possible to base a/cs in the new hubs or will they be based only on the main base?
-how will the flight be handled? I know that some airlines operate "through service" with some of their flights. I.e., Etihad flies to Cape Town from Johannesburg but it is not allowed to operate as a carrier in South Africa. This means that EY flights can't take on board new pax while stopping over in Johannesburg. Anyway, I know that Emirates operates flights from Singapore to Australia and it is allowed to take pax on board. I think this issue must be solved or we will have "two legs routes" as now...

Hope that my considerations will help to stimulate some positive critics which will help the development of the new V1.2 engine.

[ICEcoldair881]

hey there. I know that it will be completely up to you whether you want to base Aircraft at your secondary hub, but I think you'd want to base them there so you don't have to make a stopover on your 'direct flight'. Also, I think there will be a limit to how many hubs you can open outside of your base-country, but you will most likely be able to depending on your size, the international city's demand etc. and i'm not exactly sure what the regulations are in Europe for that as I live in Canada, so you'd have to wait for sami to answer that. flights will be handled as they are and i'm sure of that because it would be far too complicated for sami to code that only certain airlines in certain areas are allowed to make a full stop-over in another city then go onto a city within the country of the first stop-over city (if that made sense). BTW, new hubs aren't called focus cities, their called secondary hubs. Focus cities are just cities that they have a lot of flights TO, but not FROM. that's the difference.

Cheers,
ICEcold

[L1011fan]

Etihad or any other carrier should NOT be able to operate domestic flights in another country for revenue. Its called Cabotage. It HAS to be a dead, non-revenue leg. Perhaps the initial route makes enough to cover the non-rev leg. Doesn't matter if you hub at a foreign airport, any airline with a foreign hub may not operate domestic flights in that country, UNLESS it is a connection written on the same ticket. But one can't write a ticket on Etihad for JNB-CPT-JNB only. If the flight is continuing to say, AUH, then a stop over might be permitted domestically on Etihad, but it must be on the same ticket always. It must always show a continuation out of the host country.

[L1011fan]

PS many carriers are allowed to operate through a 3rd country.
So, AMS-YYZ-LAX is ok to sell tickets on all legs.
On AMS-JFK-LAX, you can sell the AMS-JFK leg, but it would be non revenue JFK-LAX, also known as a dead leg.

[EYguy]

Yeah, that's what I meant! The problem is that most of the player now use the second leg as a revenue leg and not as dead one! So they're basically cashing even the demand for the second leg... I hope it won't be allowed in the next games! Does anyone know about this feature?

[CanadianPilot]

AMS-YYZ-LAX is called Fifth Freedom, where pax can be planed and deplaned at any of the stops.   It really depends on the bilateral agreements between countries, and it would be rather complicated to replicate all of those within the AirWay Sim world, so I suspect it will either be allowed for every country or none at all. 

Cabotage is a different story, it's generally never permitted by any country (this would be AMS-YYZ-YVR).   This is currently permitted in AirWay Sim, and I think it should be removed in future games.   

[schro]

Cabotage is a different story, it's generally never permitted by any country (this would be AMS-YYZ-YVR).   This is currently permitted in AirWay Sim, and I think it should be removed in future games.    

I've seen a rash of people speaking out against cabotage lately, and I'll have to disagree with removing it from future games, for the sake of playability within the game.  If you remove cabotage, it suddenly makes almost all of the airports in the game unviable for putting your headquarters there unless you happen to be located in the USA, Europe or Asia. If its to be dealt with at all, perhaps the demand model for passengers should consider flying a domestic airline for domestic flights as one of the elements to determine who gets business.

Of course, my view on cabotage is that its a left over relic of the protectionist past that is keeping the air transportation business from becoming truely globalized like all other industries have done over the past few decades....

[EYguy]

Hi Candian and L1011...

As CanidianPilot said, the Fifth Freedom is a thing which is usually negotiated state by state and on a case by case basis. I would say that it is the exception, not the rule, and this is why I keep asking Sami to cancel this feature in the next games. I have nothing against a double leg route until it does originate in the home country of the airline. I mean, I could readly accept a JFK-LAX-SYD flight, but not an SYD-LAX-YYZ.
Just to be fair, I want to remember that Qantas is not allowed to carry new pax on the leg LAX-JFK of its SYD-LAX-JFK route...