Let's try again then

[Jetsetter]

To all you guys in the big leagues, how do you do it?

Leases.

Although I'm not in the big leagues. If you figure the cost of a lease over the next three years, which is when the game ends, to the cost of purchasing the aircraft, you'll start to get a return just as it's time to start all over.


There's a deficit of 70 to 100 seat aircraft, just like their was in the real world. When production of the Avro's and Fokker's ceased, it took several years before the advent of the CRJ-700 and 900's and ERJ-170's showed up to fill the gap. I'd be on CRJ-700's a lot of they were in the game world.

[JumboShrimp]

I think you got it all.  As a qualification, by LH I mean destinations outside of USA and North America.  There are a lot of medium distance domestic US destinations (within 1800nm) + Hawai + a handful of destinations in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico that you can use medium range aircraft such as 737 and A320.  You may need some 200+ aircraft to satisfy this demand out of DTW, which can keep you busy for a while.

For real LH, you will probably need a new fleet type.  It is a good learning and experimenting, but it will not make you a fortune.  Most of the LH aircraft has 200+ passenger capacity, and there are not that many routes out of DTW with that kind of demand.  There may be only about 20 to 25 destinations worldwide with that tye of demand out of DTW in year you are in.  A bunch more become viable with 737-700ER which has a range of ~4500 and capacity of 120, but it comes out in ~2008.

[schro]

Since abcba routing are no longer allowed wih he currebt basing scenario, I see nothing wrong with using shorter haul planes with a fuel stop for longer roites, like transatlantic. I'm using a ton of 757s with stops to cover Asia from Chicago and Seattle and theyre doing quite well. My longest haul plan is the a306r, and that with a stop gets me to just about anywhere in the world.

[filipebravo]

Don't know if it was said before, didn't take the time to read the whole thread, but here's my advice (simple one):

Try to fly the shortest routes first. Those are giving you higher yields. If you use the right plane, there's no way you're gonna get bankrupt like that. Shortest routes = plane flying many times a day = higher profit / plane
And like that you are almost imune to competition, unless they fly all your shortest routes, there's always some cash coming in.

Hope it helps