Starting as a small commuter: viable starting strategy?

[Sami]

I'd really like to try an island hopping service on 20nm routes using something like a Trislander or Do-228, but the minimum distance blocker kicks in and I can't do it.

That can be overriden for selected airport pairs, I just need the ICAO codes .. if there's really a route between those.

[thedr2]

I can do some stuff on the Channel Islands. Plenty of flights with trislanders there. Would imagine the demand is preety decent. How would you like the info (I can do demand too if you like) sent to you?

[Beni]

In my own experience is impossible to be succesful with a regional company in the game. I trid twice in world 1 and I´m not able to make money. I run a regional corp based in a decent airport, BIO (Spain). I fly with 6 ATR42-200 with a load factor nearly 70% in this moment, a image over 40 and routes images growing. I was able to get some little profit (not more than 30,000$) but whit the fourth month finishe I had to pay the leasings, son in this moment I´m going to bankrupty in a few weeks.

In game 2, I started a game in a better airport, BCN (Spain) but not a top one. I use jets around 100 seats (+ a MD-81 with 155) and in this moment I have 6 planes, my incoming is growing fast, and I trust in be able to pay the leasings in 6 weeks.

As other players wrote in this post, I dont like the idea of giving the same % of load factor to all the planes with no care about the number of seats.

[Sami]

As other players wrote in this post, I dont like the idea of giving the same % of load factor to all the planes with no care about the number of seats.

And again that is not the intention or how it has been planned .. But seems that the route image concept on new routes messes that calculation somehow on small planes and I'm working on it.

[Echoco]

In my own experience is impossible to be succesful with a regional company in the game. I trid twice in world 1 and I´m not able to make money. I run a regional corp based in a decent airport, BIO (Spain). I fly with 6 ATR42-200 with a load factor nearly 70% in this moment, a image over 40 and routes images growing. I was able to get some little profit (not more than 30,000$) but whit the fourth month finishe I had to pay the leasings, son in this moment I´m going to bankrupty in a few weeks.

In game 2, I started a game in a better airport, BCN (Spain) but not a top one. I use jets around 100 seats (+ a MD-81 with 155) and in this moment I have 6 planes, my incoming is growing fast, and I trust in be able to pay the leasings in 6 weeks.

As other players wrote in this post, I dont like the idea of giving the same % of load factor to all the planes with no care about the number of seats.

hey that sound like my airline although i use 42-320s, loosing money fast due to C checks, 3 of those little planes cost a mil to do c checks. 

[EGJB]

I can do some stuff on the Channel Islands. Plenty of flights with trislanders there.

Ah, competition already! 

I'd definitely like to be able to do flights between EGJB, EGJJ and EGJA, and even include LFRD please sami. There's up to 25 flights a day between EGJB and EGJJ with 16/18 seaters, and a further 6 a day between EGJB and EGJA. What the actual passenger numbers are I don't know, but I'd bet the vast majority of the 75,000 or so passengers using EGJA (by far the smallest airport) each year are travelling to EGJB.

[woober]

On Iceland there is domestic flights aswell in reallife, but not here.. Like the route Keflavik - Akureyri have 5 t/r flights almost daily, would be fun to have some domestic flights on Iceland

[JJP]

It's certainly possible to run a profitable commuter airline - my EBITDA is about $500,000 pcm with 4 leased ATR-42s & 2 leased ATR72s (with another 2 on order), with my longest route 400nm - and all that from an airport closed from 21:00 until 05:00. Interestingly there doesn't appear to be much difference between the recommended fare for my 400mn route and my ones that are less than 100mn (and take less than half the time to fly), but obviously the variable costs (i.e., fuel) are less - resulting in higher margins. I'd really like to try an island hopping service on 20nm routes using something like a Trislander or Do-228, but the minimum distance blocker kicks in and I can't do it.

As has been mentioned above the trick seems to be to operate a small number of routes at a high frequency. I presume this cuts down on overheads such as staff numbers, marketing etc. which would be duplicated if more airports were serviced.

It seems if the route is sufficiently short, it makes it worth while.  I think the other side of the equation is the problem with load factors mentioned inthis thread.

[thedr2]

Ah, competition already! 

I'd definitely like to be able to do flights between EGJB, EGJJ and EGJA, and even include LFRD please sami. There's up to 25 flights a day between EGJB and EGJJ with 16/18 seaters, and a further 6 a day between EGJB and EGJA. What the actual passenger numbers are I don't know, but I'd bet the vast majority of the 75,000 or so passengers using EGJA (by far the smallest airport) each year are travelling to EGJB.

I don't mind if you want to do it. If you're a local, you may well know far more than I do about the island hoppers.

[Sami]

Format:

Code Select Expand

ICAO-ICAO: paxperday

one per line. Paxperday = estimated pax demand on that route, which you can calculate also by using the number of seats available * 0.7 (assuming 70% LF is usual).

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