Lessons Learned- A Guide To Newcomers
masoniclight:
Hey out there in Airwaysim Land. PM "Midnight" Blum here.. chairman of WIND Airlines (twice bankrupt) and now The Shrine Temple Airlines (all Game One) and the rebirth of WIND Airlines (Game Two).
I am here to give some of my hard learned wisdom to anyone who might be wondering about what is going on in the great game and how to avoid some possible pitfalls.
As you can see, I have filed bankrupt not once but twice! Why? Do you ask? Simply because of too rapid expansion. I want to stress to you, the player reading this "guide" these three important words you should put in your Airwaysim vocabulary: Patience, Patience, Patience. Did you get that? Let me say it again- PATIENCE, PATIENCE, PATIENCE! It doesn't matter if you have started your base in the most populous city on earth with the most passengers coming to the airport or whether you have chose a smaller, more out of the way city...
ALL loads will be small and not up to your lofty expectations. It could be MONTHS (game time) before you see your profits begin to finally outweigh your costs. Prepare for this and take things slow at first. You will incur a lot of losses at first. Don't panic. Have Patience.
Secondly, take your time in planning your routes! This is perhaps the most important in game decision you will make. Passengers are your life blood. Whether you have an aircraft that hold 150 people or one that holds 15.. you need to move these people to the new destinations.. as MANY of them as you can.
As I mentioned, your load factors will probably not be the highest, that takes time as I mentioned already, but you will have to put up with these loads numbers for a while. Yes, even if you've lowered your prices significantly, the load factors don't seem to alter all that much. I know, I have tried to have a low priced airline each time.. in fact, I am dedicated to running a low priced carrier.. it really takes dedication and the knowing your profit margins are going to suffer in the short term.
So where to go? As you plan your route, look at the numbers closely. If Monday and Friday have significant number of potential fliers, then obviously have your plane(s) fly in on those days.. maybe more than once or twice.. the numbers will give you an idea of how many times you might need to visit that airport (or airports) with your fleet.
Here are the facts-
Large cities usually have large or at least significant airports; therefore, passenger numbers should be greater there. Just remember, you won't be the ONLY one flying into these airports so the passenger numbers will inevitably be diluted over time as more airlines fly their planes into those large cities.
Large Cities- Pros: Large number of potential passengers. Cons: Large number of OTHER airlines competing over that airport.
Medium cities usually have significant or moderate sized airports; therefore, passengers numbers probably will not be as high as the larger cities but still should be enough to keep your air fleet busy. It may be good to look into these cities as alternate money sources if you don't want to fight it out with a ton of other companies vying for those airports. Medium Cities- Pros: Probably fair to good passenger numbers, possibly not as many companies competing for these airports. Cons: Lesser passenger numbers means less revenue.
Small cities. So, no love for small airports? Well the argument is that the small numbers of potential passengers cannot justify the cost of flying to these airports.. well.. IF you do decide to send a plane or two to smaller airports, you probably will be the only show in town. No competition. Logically, you would think that people in the smaller cities would be more loyal to a company willing to come to their airport.. in real life, loyalty by the customers does factor into things.. in game.. well, I'm not so sure, but regardless of that, there are people in these cities wanting to go places. So there is money to be made there.. albeit, not a lot of overall revenue.
So what to do? Fly to a small city, pick up some people and fly back to your base city or stop over in a small city on your way to a larger one? Tough to answer that one. I am committed to flying at least a plane or two into smaller airports... we'll see if that strategy helps or hinders my companies, but I figure that if I can at least break even in with the small airports (eventually) my company won't be harmed in pursuing that strategy.
Small cities: Pros: probably no competition. Cons: small potential passenger pools, airports that aren't open 24 hours a day.
Airplanes:
Well the trickiest part of the game is the planes themselves. Buy or lease. With 4 million dollars to start.. you won't find a lot of planes you can purchase right off. The ones you can purchase are either older than dirt or just slightly larger than a breadbasket. Buying of course means no lease agreements and so no more money coming out of the bank every month. Of course, you wont have a lot left of your money for other things, and those monthly salaries have to paid no matter if you lease or buy. You will have to decide which way is best for you. I have tried both ways now and have yet to form an opinion about either decision. When game 1 is done, I will be able to better answer this question.
No matter what: Make sure that your C & D checks are a LONG way off. They can break your bank and bankrupt your company. Never get a plane that has C & D checks coming soon! Also, don't get a plane that holds 200 people if a smaller plane, cheaper plane will do as near a good job. Only get that 200 carrier plane if you are ABSOLUTELY sure you can get at least 65% of it full each time it flies! Otherwise, fuel costs and turn around costs and maintenance costs will eat up any potential profit you might earn.
Finally- Have fun with the game. We all want to have the best airlines around. We all want to see our airlines in the top five airline companies.. its just natural.. but don't let that desire to be the best the fastest be your guide in this game. Have patience and have fun with it.. remember.. its just a game.
So Mote It Be.
tacsniper:
I would like to add my observation as well.
Marketing
Marketing is your bread and butter. Either company image or route image, you will need marketing to increase your LF thus increase profit. Put a lot of effort in marketing your company or routes for the first few months and then maybe scale back a little but do not eliminate marketing.
Maintenance
After you purchase your aircraft make sure your maintenance are schedule to ensure your aircraft are kept up in condition and not to get ding during ramp check. If your aircrafts are not up to date on their maintenance it will hurt your company image real bad no matter how hardcore your marketing is. Like who would want to fly with a company with unsafe airplanes right? ;)
lucasite:
Great advise guys. Can I also add:
Pricing
At first, dont try to run your pricing at default rates, using the Price Management feature to reduce pricing by percentages, it makes life so much easier. I started all my route pricing with between 15% and 20% discounts. It really helps to improve your load factors. And if/when you decide to increase your prices, monitor your LF for the following few days to see the impact. You'll soon see if you're customers are happy with the price increases or not.
(admin note: when your company and route images raise after 6-8 months after opening the route, remember to raise the prices as the customers know you already by then and you can raise the prices by then to maximize the profits)
Maintenance
My first aircraft had only 69% condition. And at least once or twice a week I suffered from cancelled flights due to technical problems. I finally bit the bullet and decided that losing a days income to perform an early B check would be better in the long run. And it was, my a/c condition jumped to 83%, no more (frequent) cancellations. Note: this may not be a dead cert for everyone, but it worked for me, and is something to think about.
masoniclight:
Yes Add AWAY your thoughts and observations here!! I appreciate this input.. newcomers especially need to know how to be successful in the game... the best way of course is to see how we did it (or what not to do in my cases.. at least the first two bankruptcies)
I wanted to add that when it comes to Scheduling the more places you fly, the potentially more amount of customers you may have flying your airlines. SO, if that plane of yours still has a few hours in the day open on its schedule... maybe a short jaunt to another airport just might be something to think about.. plan accordingly of course.. but having more passengers is usually a good thing.
JJP:
I have noticed that there are certain popular times of the day people like flying. Your load factors will be somewhat higher than at other times. You can let it ride (enjoying higher load factors) or slightly increase your rates for that flight. You'll have to play with the price to find the best profit (price vs. load).
On the flip side of the coin, there are some times of the day that are not so popular for people to fly. You may need to slightly decrease your rates for these (late night/early morning) flights.
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