Small Capacity Planes.

[azdozer]

Hello, I am wondering. Can one be profitable and grow flying planes such as the Beech 1900/Cessna 208/Pilatus PC-12? I don't want to restart as I have an airline that I am satisfied with or else I would experiment with it myself, if so. What is the best way to go about it? My intentions, of course. Would be to fly out of an airport that is completely in the "middle of nowhere" that has demands in the 10-30 range so I don't have to worry about costs or competition. Thanks!

[Fscamp]

I think 19 seaters such as Beech 1900 are fine, I've been making quite steady profit with a large fleet of metroliners in minor domestic Mexican routes.

Smaller planes than that didn't seem to work well for me though, I think they might profitable on very short routes (100-200nm or so).

[LemonButt]

IMO the game has changed dramatically in terms of small aircraft.  The main issue being overcoming the overhead breakeven required to make small planes profitable.  Now that starting cash has been increased for late comers, it should be much easier to run a profitable airline with small aircraft since instead of being stuck with getting just 2 or 3 and struggling to earn profit to get to that 4th, you can start with 7+ and quickly become profitable.

[azdozer]

Thanks for the responses, the breakeven point you mentioned is what I was wondering about. Seems like you'd need an awful lot of staff for flying an airline consisting of Beech 1900's, I also noticed the game requires two pilots when I know that those can be flown with only one...Not sure exactly on what the rules are for commercial passenger service is. The lowest I've been brave enough to go was the EMB-120, I would love to have a fleet of Beech 1900's. I love that plane, I know that is not exactly a sound business model, but than again this game isn't real life and if there is some hope of making it happen it'd be fun! I could be like the Great Lakes Airlines of AWS.

Now this is a little off topic, but related to the profitability of small airplanes and those of us who enjoy making profits off planes with less than 30 seats and maybe even free up some bigger airports to let players try something new and add Essential Air Service to the game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Air_Service) Just thinking out loud now, take care!

[LemonButt]

Now this is a little off topic, but related to the profitability of small airplanes and those of us who enjoy making profits off planes with less than 30 seats and maybe even free up some bigger airports to let players try something new and add Essential Air Service to the game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Air_Service) Just thinking out loud now, take care!

There is already a feature request for this: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,34583.msg182821.html#msg182821

[azdozer]

Well shucks! For a minute there I was thinking I was special.