Pax prefer smaller planes - only difference small / medium / large / very large?

[Curse]

Hello,

until now I thought pax prefer every smaller aircraft, so for example they like an A319 more than an A320.

But now I've heared from some people this only depends on the "pilots difference", so an A330-200 has the same size than a B747-400 and an A318 has the same size like a B757-300.


Which one of these both theorys are correct? Especially if I compare B757-200/-300 with B737-800/-900ER? And if theory one is correct, is the calculation about the maximum pax number?

[Sami]

The whole "fact" of pax preferring smaller planes is a myth. It's thought so because people just look at the LF % and nothing else really.

If you put a ERJ145 and B747 on the same route, with equal prices and dep/arr times etc (only diff being the aircraft type) guess which plane will have the higher LF if all seats on both are not sold? ERJ of course since if you sell like 45 seats there you get 90% LF but to get the same for 747 you'd need to sell 400 seats.

Though if repeating the same route again and again, the smaller plane will become more effective since the flight frequency and available choice is increased and that is preferred. But using a too small plane has bad effects on the other hand as paxes don't prefer slow / small / uncomfortable planes.

(but with all the variables and things affecting these the results may vary.. but they do not prefer small planes in design)

[Curse]

Oha 

Thanks for this post sami, this opens some new strategys. It's always good to hear something final and no inexact opinion 

[Dave4468]

The whole "fact" of pax preferring smaller planes is a myth. It's thought so because people just look at the LF % and nothing else really.

Bugger.

I thought it was true, otherwise I would have gone for something bigger than some ERJ145s for my domestic routes. 

[Sigma]

Find a route that already has 100% demand filled.

Open a route with a single A300.
Open 3 routes with 3 x F100s.
Same number of seats between them.

Which one steals more pax from the incumbent airline over the whole week?

The 3 x F100s.  By far.

Call it prefering smaller planes, call it preferring flight frequency, call it whatever you want -- simple fact is that smaller planes work better at stealing (or holding) pax than larger ones.  In a very, VERY big way.

[orionmco]

It makes sense that passengers would have a preference on when to catch a flight whenever possible.  So it would stand to reason that flight frequency would be a contributing factor.  I know from experience growing up flying quite frequently on Comair (my father is a pilot) that the majority of people you encounter prefer larger aircraft (even when both are jets).  For some reason people think big = safe    In reality passengers prefer larger planes.  The only reasons I have seen that people fly on smaller aircraft are because they are all that is available on a route, or they offer cheaper ticket prices, or because they arrive/depart at a specific time (frequency).  So it would seem that the perceived preference is actually the opposite.  Hence Sami mentioning that this is a misperception based on load factors...

I'd like to add that... As far as my observations on the size of aircraft people feel comfortable flying, pretty much anything with more than 100 seats would fit into the "larger plane" category and less would be considered "smaller."  It is important to remember as Sami pointed out that the longer the flight the less comfortable and perhaps less likely a passenger is to choose your airline.  I am too new to the game to understand how it all fits into the game mechanics however.  Just interpreting what was said...

[jamestbailey]

Interesting (and very helpful) thread. Glad there is no mystery preference for small aircraft (which would make no sense) but a preference for frequency of flights (which makes lots of sense).

I assume that there is of course a balance. If you are fighting with a competitor to secure a short-haul 3000pax/day route, using 15 flights x 100 pax to "secure" your half of the market (ignoring CI etc.), you may well have higher maintenance costs for running more aircraft. Slightly larger and fewer aircraft might still provide you with enough frequency for it to be worthwhile, but lower maintenance... not sure what the curve looks like as to passenger preference against number of flights per day. One would assume a law of diminishing returns - reducing from 6 daily to 5 daily should have a lot less impact than reducing from 2 to 1 - anyone know how that is modelled?

I have foolished failed to note that you can have your hypothetical 6 daily flights all leaving at precisely the same time and the "passengers" don't care (at least at the moment - no doubt Sami is working on the finer - and no doubt difficult - question of passenger modelling.)

Question: does anyone happen to know when a passenger considers flight frequency whether he looks at daily or weekly flights. If you (bizarrely) flew 6 flights on Mon and 1 every remaining day of the week, would you fair better on Monday than an airline that flew 3/day for 7 days a week?

Jimbo