Are 747's worth it?

[MattDell]

Just got my first 747-400 and gave it a week to see how the profits are going.  The plane is making about the same per week doing the London -> Singapore route as my 757-200's doing the London -> NYC route.  With the lease being nearly 4x as much and fuel burn being about 75% more... how do you make 747's profitable?  Or are they just not worth it?

-Matt

[Filippo]

Based on my Experience, 744 are optimal on services that keep them busy for an entire day, like a London - NYC for egsample.
The Singapore route instead is flown (going and coming back) in 1.5 days if I am not mistaken. Well, since it takes 1.5 days for the 744, it only flies 4 days a week to Singapore, whilst it could potentially fly to NYC 7 times a week.

An average Y ticket across the atlantic in AWS in 1996 is about $400. The Y ticket to Singapore is $600 if I remember well.
Now, if you fly 7 times a week to NYC from London, each seat would sell in total $5600 of tickets in a week. If you fly from London to Singapore 4 times a week, each seat would sell in total $4800 of tickets in a week.

To this factor, we have to add that the 747 has a rather high fuel burn compared to the 757 and, since you leased it from the used market, probably it was over priced; resulting in high operational costs.

I try to replace my 747s, if I have some, fairly quickly to avoid having them when fuel starts to rise, as their profits fall down the drain. 777 - 300/ER are good alternatives, as they have egsactly the same capacity but lower fuel burn. The A340-600 are good as well, but they have a slightly lower capacity than the 747s. Usually, I try to avoid 747s also because pax "prefer" smaller planes and because of the high turn around times which increase airport fees. But, at the start of the game, when the 773 and A346 are not in yet, they are the only planes capable of carrying aproxximately 400 pax.

hope it helps,
Filippo

[MattDell]

That was an AWESOME response, Filippo.  Makes perfect sense!

Now I have to ask, is there a profitable way to fly a London -> Singapore route?  Or should I get rid of it?

-Matt

[Filippo]

Well, The A330/340 family and the 777 family are perfect. Just have to pick!

Also, I recommend you to buy the A380 as soon as possible as they have the same operational costs as 747 but carry much more people. In my last airline, each one made around 3 million a week.

Remember though that in the game, the highest profit margin for intercontinental routes are the ones you fly in a day. Though, if you use the correct aircraft (A330/340 or B777s)for the longer ones two, they can as well become cash cows

[mukk]

An average Y ticket across the atlantic in AWS in 1996 is about $400. The Y ticket to Singapore is $600 if I remember well.
Now, if you fly 7 times a week to NYC from London, each seat would sell in total $5600 of tickets in a week. If you fly from London to Singapore 4 times a week, each seat would sell in total $4800 of tickets in a week.

your missing one thing in your calculation, and that is route fees. since you are doing fewer flights per week the route fees are also lower. this should offset the smaller ticket income i think, as route fees are a major asset.

[Filippo]

That is true, but I had an experience with an Airline based in the  Barbados and even if route fees are higher, my Barbados - London route (similar to LON - JFK) was always more profitable than my Barbados - Dubai route (similar to London - Singapore)

[Unbornio]

Yes if put on the right routes. Doesn't have to be long haul even.... I remember using a 742 with full business class and nothing else on MUC-DUB in Beta.

Very profitable.

[Dorito_25]

In that case...why did I order the 744!!!??? This persuaded me not to!  It's all good...I hope

[Filippo]

Just replace them before the fuel crisis.

A380 have more capacity and same operational costs, 773/ER are the same as 744 but with lower operating costs and A346 are slighty smaller but with lower operating costs.

[swiftus27]

Large planes are evil.

1.  PAX gravitate to smaller planes (per Sami)
2.  Larger planes burn through a ton more fuel.
3.  Use large planes only when the slots are full.  I can not emphasize this enough.  I had 744ds completely loaded flying multiple times per day and still lose money.  744s are good only and I emphasize ONLY when there almost no slots left.

[MattDell]

When does this "fuel crisis" hit?

[mukk]

When does this "fuel crisis" hit?

as opposed to the last games that followed real world price development, in the current games there are "custom" fuel prices, so nobody (except maybe sami  ) knows when or even if there will be s/t like a fuel crisis.