Expert Advise on Strategy, Please ?
Kastor:
Hi, I am a newbie and I am running my first very unsuccessful airline with -2.5 mln company value and I can not buy any aircraft so I can not try out a new strategy. I don't know if I manage to get to black numbers before demo ends, so I am asking.
Probably my mistake was to lease a 102 seater jet that was too much fuel consumming and after a week I leased 707-320C that is even more fuel consuming.
Should I have rather leased two 50 seater turboprops of the same type instead of those jets and take 2 or 3 short regional routes with good demand for each of them ?
As a curiosity, there was an airline in Poland that also started with a few B734s on regional routes and it is no more on the market, I just reminded myself. ;D
Will appreciate the advice :-)
Seattle:
Try to get a 727/737/A320/DC-9/MD80/Tu-154/Tu-134/717/Fokker 100 for your first palne....g2g now, maybe someone else can give yo advice.
Dazwalsh:
the 707 was probabaly very very old and this leads to huge maintenance and fuel bills, this is what is crippling you now, you are best off declaring bankrupcy if this aircraft isnt bringing in any money.
start fresh and start small, turboprops/ small jets to local airports within 200/300 nm away should get you started, make sure the aircraft are not too old (i try to keep my fleet less than 12 year old). also check the condition of the aircraft, it should be over 70 percent to help stop technical problems affecting delays and cancellations.
keep an eye on your company image, this is an important aspect of the game, always have a marketing campaign in place and do your best not to let this drop below zero.
once these aircraft have started to make a profit you can either keep going with the same sized aircraft or think about something bigger like a Boeing 737/ Airbus A320. These planes will bring in a lot more profit but with added expenditure so make sure the routes you place them on have enough demand. try to have as many flights a day out of all your fleet, (all mine fly from between 5 and 6 in the morning and dont stop until midnight).
this is just a basic overview of what i personally would do, each airport requires a different strategy, others might be able to go into greater depth
blumage:
another tip to squeeze as much as possible flights into a plane's schedule for shorthaul choose aircraft with relatively short turn around. If im not mistaken the 707-320 had a 90 min turn around to reach a 0% delay probability. There are planes that can carry a good amount of passengers for less time. Btw also take into consideration fleet commonality. Use same models of airplanes .
Kastor:
Thank you very much guys. :)
I take care of my company image and have it over 50 now. 3x B check month by month and my A/C are nearly 100% good, but I am still -2.5 mln in cash. However I have a good position on 2 routes done from the first day, one of them has LF almost 70% and giving profit, another on the same A/C also giving profit with LF 57%, but can't get into profit area on the third route that is making heavy loss because of B707-320C flyin' JFK-LAX. Now I can only sit and wait so I am considering starting over enriched with your advice.
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