Fixed Delivery Dates

[Riger]

Hi Sami,

I would like to see an option that, when ordering new aircraft, the player is able to select a checkbox that ensures that the original planned delivery date will not shift when other players cancel orders.  I know that this has been discussed before but I am not able to find any updates on what the status is (if any) or if you are planning to make any changes to this area of the game or not.

I have tired to plan as best as I can to reduce the financial impact when modernizing my fleet from B707's to B767-200ER's. We are talking about approx 50 aircraft. 

After ordering the aircraft, I create a spreadsheet with the expiry dates of all my existing a/c, and an opposing column with the planned delivery dates.  Considering that the delivery dates are as much as 3 years away, I am able to manipulate the lease renewal of my existing fleet, using increments of 1/1.5/2/2.5/3 years in order to closely match the delivery schedules of the new aircraft. Obviously this degree of planning takes some time and effort which is ok, because I then goto the existing fleet and actually make (commit) the extensions of existing leases accordingly.

The problem I face now, is that the advance of delivery actually has the 50 aircraft arriving between 1 and 9 months early!!

In previous discussions about this, some players suggested just keeping the aircraft and putting them on other routes; this is OK if there is sufficient demand on other routes available, but there is not.  So I will be faced with either terminating early or running (these unneeded aircraft) at a loss until I can terminate the lease without too much of a financial hit. Either way, it is going to waste large amounts of cash.

I accept that in the real world, there are also fluctuations in the delivery schedules of new aircraft, but surely not to the extent that we face in the gameplay here in AWS at the moment.  I know the circumstances are not the same, and in real life there are not as many bankruptcies as there are in AWS, but then surely we should compensate for that and allow users the option for a fixed date for delivery.

If you allow this option, then there is the question of what to do with all the "extra manufacturing slots";  I think that these aircraft could be made available in a separate list where the buyers have the option to take that slot with the same limitations that they would have had if they had made the original order (ie: they accept the original choices made by the original buyer).  There may be players that would prefer to get their aircraft earlier and not opt for the "fixed delivery dates".  Either way, the aircraft will surely get absorbed into the market anyway and this will allow for better planning for those who play this amazing game in that way.

Sami, I look forward to your thoughts on this request/issue.

Best Regards

Richard

[Sami]

A very short answer for starters: atm. there are no plans to make updates to a/c ordering system. As it was just worked with and have to focus on other things... But thread will be kept open for discussion & possible later updates.

[JJRiddle1]

I think there are some great points here.  I think players should have the option to deny early deliveries to stick to their financial plan. The extra slots vacated by other carriers could be sold at a premium.

Also, if the schedule is moving forward, why isnt the production schedule updated to show that orders are moved forward? There would be no need for the slots for cancelled orders if the calendar reflected what was really going on.

[Riger]

Sami,

If this feature cannot be considered now, then could you please consider allowing the short term lease extensions for aircraft that have already been leased?

I other words, the player is able to extend the lease of an aircraft already being leased in increments of say 2 or 3 months.  This way, players will be able to plan their transitions to new aircraft with a higher degree of accuracy and less financial impact.

Thank you in advance for the consideration.

Best Regards

Richard

[Riger]

Sami,

Any thoughts on allowing us to better manage transitions this way?

Best Regards

Richard

[Jps]

Slightly related to this...
I have in MT3 my first 737 arriving on January 2005. It was first supposed to come on March -05, but was moved forward. However, the rest of my planes only start arriving in July. So there's a huge cap between the first delivery and the rest.

So, 2 improvements:
1.) When you initially order the planes, I'd like to have an option (along with the fixed date) to keep the airplanes 'bundled' so that if the production lines move forward, all of my planes would get new slots, instead of just 1 or 2 so, that they arrive a lot sooner than the rest. And if there are not enough slots for my aircraft, they would not move forward.

2.) Like I said, I have that 1 aircraft arriving 6 months before the others. With just 1 aircraft, I'm likely to get higher fleet commonality costs due to 1 plane of other fleet type than what that single plane can make profit. So, I'd like to change the delivery date for that aircraft by letting other airlines between my 1st and 2nd planes to move 1 slot forward, leaving me room on June or July. Thus, I'd get my planes in one bundle, and some airlines would get their aircraft a bit sooner.

[pascaly]

Having ordered planes in previous games and had to balance the changed delivery dates, as a minimum, it would be good to be able to extend lease dates by short (3 months) periods. 

Count me in as a +1 for some tweaks to the delivery process.

[ACDennison]

Maybe rather than worry about adding whole new ways to sell cancelled orders, just make it so the cancelled order goes to one of the NPC aircraft dealers/brokers who then put it on the market.  Then no-ones schedule is effected, and some newer types become more widely available on occasion.  Of course, the brokers may add a premium to the new a/c...

[cunim58]

I'm fairly new to AWS and have struggled with (among other things!) planning new aircraft purchases and subsequent delivery. With a relatively small airline there is not too much cash in hand, and consequently relatively small reserves if the financial picture changes. I appreciate this is reflective of many real world situations, but in these cases there is usually the opportunity to schedule fairly tightly when large expenditures will occur, by negotiating fairly tight delivery dates of capital equipment.

I believe it would be very helpful - maybe only in Beginners World scenarios - to have the opportunity during the purchase negotiation screens to specify
1 - a 'not before date' for the first delivery and
2 - a 'not greater than frequency' i.e. 1/month, 3/2 months etc.

This would greatly facilitate learning the process of efficiently purchasing new aircraft, and perhaps more importantly,  learn how to plan and implement fleet renewal in the long game worlds.

An option could exist - the  'whatever!' option - that would allow delivery scheduling by the system as it happens at present, so it would not necessarily cause anyone to ponder this matter if they do not want to.

Apologies if this is rehashing an old suggestion,
Thanks,
Tom