Not Flying From Base Airport

[lucasite]

Hi all,
silly question but we dont have to have all our routes go from our base airport do we?
Although I chose EGLL as my base, I'm thinking I'll stand more chance flying to/from someone else, away from the frenzy of competition.

[ryanhami]

Yes All Your Routes Have To Fly From Your Base, You Can Relocate Which Takes Time And Costs Money.

O By The Way I Have The Biggest Market Segment Out Of EGLL, Its My Base Too.

[Talentz]

You can use the the "optional" 2nd city route when your planning your flights.  So you could something like this: LHR-CDG-MAN-CDG-LHR instead of LHR-CDG; LHR-MAN


That way, you dont rely solely on hub-xxx-hub routes. But, Using the continuation routes does lower your yields (over the long run, 100+ aircraft).

Its all up to you. Though, being based at LHR, you invited yourself into the frenzy of competition when you first selected that airport 

[jagalubnan]

You shouldn't let competition make you switch airports. I understand that if it's your first time playing, you'd want more of a "sandbox" mode = being the only one based at your airport, but that gets really boring at times. Competition makes the game more fun by creating a whole slew of things.

[lucasite]

Yes I suppose thats true. However where a route has supply meeting its demand, it would be foolish for me to join in without making a sever loss. It would be pointless me setting up a route from EGLL to LFPG or EHAM, with 0 route image. So inevitably I will have to pick a quieter, less competitive route.

[jagalubnan]

Not necessarily. If you offer cheaper prices, add some marketing, and bam, you'll make your way up there in image. Especially if your airline is on-time/no delays.

[lucasite]

hmmm interesting.
so alternatively, a strong player, with a high route rating, and large profits, could come along, offer 1$ tickets and steel demand, forcing lesser airlines to sweat?

[Talentz]

Thats why you have advertising tools. Marketing on routes (big campagins) can erase w/e image lead your competition has on you in a hurry.

Also, in the beginning, its always a good idea to "claim" routes. Meaning fly them, even if you dont meet the demand. So, even if that LHR-CDG is crowded, add 1 flight, 1 once daily. Put adver on the route. Let your image grow. Use the remaining time to fill the aircraft with "quieter, less competitive routes" to balance out the less revenue that CDG route will bring in. Then, 6 mths down the line, once your route image is high (because of marketing) you can add 10x daily LHR-CDG and suddenly, your the market leader of that route + your not losing money because of your high/er route image. 




Also, its still the beginning of the game. Everyone has pretty much same company/route image (except for a few beta testers.. lol), so dont be too concerned with route images at this stage of the game. If you have image of 10 and your competition has an image of 15.. that doesnt mean hes making much more money then you. Its when you go into a route where the person has a high image (70+) that you have to worry about.


Edit:

so alternatively, a strong player, with a high route rating, and large profits, could come along, offer 1$ tickets and steel demand, forcing lesser airlines to sweat?

Yes and no. Could he steal pax with $1 seats? yes... Will he make money? lol, no. Not even. Price is based on what you need for your airline to a profitable operation. Having a high LF means nothing if you dont bring in the income to pay bills. Plus, theres company image and route image to deal with. Which means, a company with 90+ company image can charge higher prices and still have "bigger market share" then a company with lower image and cheaper prices.

[thetallone24]

Yes All Your Routes Have To Fly From Your Base, You Can Relocate Which Takes Time And Costs Money.

O By The Way I Have The Biggest Market Segment Out Of EGLL, Its My Base Too.

Don't speak too soon mate, it's VERY early days, hehe

[lucasite]

Whats more worrying is how long until lack of landing slots will be a problem?!

[Jps]

Whats more worrying is how long until lack of landing slots will be a problem?!

I have never had that problem in Betas, where my airports were only open for 18hrs/day. And if you operate from an airport that's open 24/7, it's even easier. But, it has to be said, that there were only about 150 active players in the Betas, so there was plenty of room.

[jagalubnan]

Yeah you never really run out of slots, but the prime ones may go fast at bigger airports!!

[Sami]

Let's see how the slot numbers develop during this game. If they run out completely somewhere then the amount needs to be tuned (a possibility that it happens..).

[Talentz]

No one had problems? lol.. didnt have enough aircraft I say.

At IAH I ran out of slots between 5am-10am and 1500-1800 after three years into the game. That was one of the reasons no airline had a chance to start up there.

I had to start flying mid day because there werent enough slots.. lol!

[Sami]

Yes well that's just normal that the "prime" slots are all gone in bigger airports..

[Beni]

Hi:

Talking about the original matter of this post, I would like to know if it will be possible to operate from more than 1 airport in the future. Finally, I´m making some money with my regional airline and I would like to extend mi airline to other small airports.

I dont know why it is no allowed (I´m sure there is a good reason ) but I think that it would be a good idea. Maybe with a set cost for new airports in order to make things realistics, but I think it would be a good idea.


PD: Sami, thanks for the new load scrip. The small airliners are finally happy!!!

[Monk Xion]

Yeah you never really run out of slots, but the prime ones may go fast at bigger airports!!

Not at KFLL. One of the US's fastest growing airports.

lol