Best aircraft for medium range thin routes?

[Andre]

I have an airline in DOTM, and my base has lots of routes 0-2500 NM with just 60 pax demand on them. I currently operate MD-88 on the higher capacity routes, but putting it on the thinner ones might not be viable.

The year in the game is 1991, and there's not that much to choose from. I'm considering BAC One-Eleven, BAe 146-series, and Fokker 100 (70 is not available). Which one is the best choice? A few of the airports have short runways where the Bae 146 would be preferable. The Fokker and Bae costs 50% more than the BAC, but the BAC is 100% more expensive to maintain. All three have pretty similar fuel burn. The best option would be a medium aircraft that could fly up to 2500 NM, but I haven't found any. I prefer a jet over a turboprop right now, because fuel costs are still fairly low, and pax seems to prefer jets on routes more than 700 NM or so.

Any thoughts?

[exchlbg]

I learned that 60 pax routes only pay off if you can at least fly 3 to 4 of them a day.So don´t go for distance.

[LemonButt]

Your best bet is the MD87 to avoid extra commonality costs.  However the fuel burn is on par with an MD88.  If you are hellbent on a new fleet type then F27 would be my recommendation.  60pax routes should only be flown if the route is 600nm or less...you'll have trouble profiting beyond this.

[Andre]

Yes, I considered the MD-87 too, but it's maintenance costs, fuel burn, crew.. all of it is similar to the larger versions, so I was thinking what's the point in getting a version with fewer seats. But it's like you say, fleet commonality will add a lot of costs if I go for another type.

[Talentz]

Not worth flying a 2000nm route for 60 pax. Least, not in 1991. Maybe to fill a couple of aircraft, it would be ok. But to center a strategy around flying long, very thin routes is bankruptcy bound. The overhead to fly such a route would crush any shown profit.

There's just not enough revenue vs time in air for such routes to be profitable.



Talentz

[TPMP]

I'm using a Fokker 70 to do some 1500nm routes. Would that not be generating much of a profit then?

[exchlbg]

No,not much. A little bit better if you own the bird.
Don´t be misled by positive route or aircraft profits. Both don´t count in the overhead costs you have.
Just break down what you need on workforce, rent, insurance, marketing,C-/D-checks,refinancing for renewal per plane to see what it should really generate to be profitable.
Long routes for small birds only make sense to maybe fill out some longer overnight gaps, but not really for profit.

[Andre]

I've flown 1500-2500 NM thin routes successfully before with a profit, but centering around that strategy isn't very clever I think. It's not what I'm doing, it's just that those routes are available for me to grab, so I just want to choose the right equipment.

[exchlbg]

Not everything ready to be grabbed should.

[alexgv1]

Not everything ready to be grabbed should.

QFT. These are fine to fly when fuel is free but catches players out when fuel goes up. Very sound advice.

[schro]

I've flown 1500-2500 NM thin routes successfully before with a profit, but centering around that strategy isn't very clever I think. It's not what I'm doing, it's just that those routes are available for me to grab, so I just want to choose the right equipment.

And when you say profit, I would imagine you mean a variable profit based upon the route management page. When you add in your fixed costs and related overhead that's not included on that page (or the aircraft page), I'd be shocked to see the routes be profitable.  Costs you probably didn't include are - staff, leasing (or cost of ownership), training, blah blah blah.

[Curse]

I used Fokker 50 with tech-stop on routes all over Europe till it's maximum range out of Palma de Mallorca once. F50 should be delivered in 1993 with 1010nm range and 580kg fuel burn/hr, 2 pilots and 1 crew and 58 pax.

An alternative could be ATR-42/72 family with the longer range variants 1991 (ATR-72 up to 940nm) and 1994 (ATR-42 up to 720nm).



Even with hard game mechanic changes by sami since then they should make a decent profit on routes without competition if you have a thin fleet group width.

I can't remember if F50 can seat business class, if you have business class on those routes, you might check out the ATR again.