New feature: Random World Events

[debitants]

I have the same problem, it is silly to cut seats, and in two weeks put them back, it takes too much time. These events shouldn`t trigger oversupply warning.

[Wreck]

I have the same problem too.

This game is getting too demanding in its need for attention.
Seriously starting to reconsider the enjoyment value....

[Sami]

Events should not trigger the oversupply warnings naturally.

[NorgeFly]

Events should not trigger the oversupply warnings naturally.

I've had a few...

[Andre]

Game World #3
Airline: City Shuttle

Routes in violation of the rules:
» UK143, EGLC - LIPZ  View route  Route planning
» UK1023, EGLC - LIPE  View route  Route planning
» UK141, EGLC - LFLL  View route  Route planning
» UK047, EGLC - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK979, EGLC - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK797, EDDH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK823, EDDH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK829, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK831, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK833, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK835, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK837, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK839, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK841, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK975, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK981, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK983, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1097, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1097, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1097, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1097, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1097, EGPH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK943, LIME - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK945, LIME - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK985, EGHI - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK991, EGHI - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK993, EGHI - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1103, EGNH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1109, EGNH - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1105, EGDG - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK1107, EGDG - EGGD  View route  Route planning
» UK261, EGAC - EGGW  View route  Route planning
» UK263, EGAC - EGGW  View route  Route planning
» UK265, EGAC - EGGW  View route  Route planning
» UK213, EGLC - EGTE  View route  Route planning
» UK181, EGLC - LIME  View route  Route planning
» UK717, EGAA - LIME  View route  Route planning
» UK1025, EDDN - EGLC  View route  Route planning
» UK1031, EDLW - EGLC  View route  Route planning
» UK1035, LPPR - EGLC  View route  Route planning
» UK645, EGBE - EGAA  View route  Route planning
» UK683, EGPN - EGAA  View route  Route planning
» UK269, EGAC - EGPH  View route  Route planning
» UK273, EGAC - EGPH  View route  Route planning
» UK999, EGAC - EGPH  View route  Route planning
» UK1003, EGAC - EGPH  View route  Route planning
» UK337, EGCN - EGAC  View route  Route planning
» UK693, EGMH - EGAC  View route  Route planning
» UK1007, EGPN - EGAC  View route  Route planning

Please be aware that oversupplying a route is forbidden in the game rules and airlines violating the rules may be penalized.

Please don't let the system close these routes Sami... it's 49 routes and my airline will implode if that happens.

[Dasha]

Generally, we have a good idea of when a Volcano may erupt in this day and age. Not with the accuracy we can predict weather, but at least we can see signs that an eruption is likely or even imminent and prepare accordingly. Now if we could only figure out how to predict earthquakes....

If that is true, why did the whole world plunge back into the dark ages when Eyjafjal... the Icelandic Volcano erupted in 2010. Even if you can predict an eruption, which I don't think they can, there's nothing you can really do about it.

[Curse]

Would it be an idea and technically possible (@sami) event caused cancellations of 100% not to count as cancellations, but as some kind of grounded? So no CI would be lost and the flights don't consume any money if that is so right now?

Basically a penalty free "auto-ground-function".

[Zombie Slayer]

If that is true, why did the whole world plunge back into the dark ages when Eyjafjal... the Icelandic Volcano erupted in 2010. Even if you can predict an eruption, which I don't think they can, there's nothing you can really do about it.

IIRC, that volcano was showing signs of an eruption for at least a month before the actual eruption began. No, there is noting that can be done about the effects of an eruption, but we do have the ability to loosely predict that an eruption is likely even if we can not pinpoint an exact time (let alone an exact day.)

Don

[cidjackaries]

I just got hit with 408 flight cancellations, and all it says is force majeure, I cannot drill down further to find out what type of event it was. If this keeps going for another week, I am going to have to shed some leases and trim the personal.

[Sami]

So no CI would be lost and the flights don't consume any money if that is so right now?

They are cancellations, and will remain as such. However their impact to CI is way less than of a regular cancellation.

[Cardinal]

However their impact to CI is way less than of a regular cancellation.

But when your entire network is grounded for the better part of a week, 11401 cancellations = 5-point drop in CI in a week. That's huge. The CI just doesn't move that much in 7 days' time.

[Mr.HP]

11401 cancellations = 5-point drop in CI in a week. That's huge

That's little, IMO. Whatever the reason, pax hate the airlines for cancelling their flights

[LemonButt]

I got hit too, although it wasn't a big deal for me.  IMO CI shouldn't be hit because an airline isn't any less worthy of flying in pax eyes.  When the volcano erupted in Iceland and shutdown Europe, British Airways didn't have their brand tarnished, nor did Air France, etc.  Sh*t happens and volcanic eruptions are something I think most pax would be willing to forgive.  It is the minor stuff that they are ignorant of that tarnishes the brand, such as delays due to parts on the runway--pax are usually less understanding about the minor issues.

[Kadachiman]

I got hit too, although it wasn't a big deal for me.  IMO CI shouldn't be hit because an airline isn't any less worthy of flying in pax eyes.  When the volcano erupted in Iceland and shutdown Europe, British Airways didn't have their brand tarnished, nor did Air France, etc.  Sh*t happens and volcanic eruptions are something I think most pax would be willing to forgive.  It is the minor stuff that they are ignorant of that tarnishes the brand, such as delays due to parts on the runway--pax are usually less understanding about the minor issues.

It could be argued that in RL airlines that continued to operate actually took a bigger hit in CI as many pax realised that some airlines put their profits before pax safety, whereas airlines that cancelled flights due to the 'risk' would have had a CI increase, unfortunately this game gives everyone a CI hit

[Sami]

British Airways didn't have their brand tarnished, nor did Air France, etc.

You obsivously do not know what kind of bs some airlines got to themselves during that event, when not taking care of their passengers etc. But of course all smart people will realize that it is not the fault of the airline ... but all people are not smart, which has been modelled here too.

(And 5 pt from in image due to some event is very minimal and should be considered as normal fluctuation even)

[LemonButt]

You obsivously do not know what kind of bs some airlines got to themselves during that event, when not taking care of their passengers etc. But of course all smart people will realize that it is not the fault of the airline ... but all people are not smart, which has been modelled here too.

(And 5 pt from in image due to some event is very minimal and should be considered as normal fluctuation even)

On a related note, is there anything modeled for random events for reservations systems failing?  Comair's reservations system had a meltdown for 48 hours during Christmas of 2004 and cancelled every single flight (aka same consequence as volcano): http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/12/25/comair-cancels-all-1100-flights/  This WAS an event that the airline could control and if the heaviest penalty is a 5 CI drop, IMO it should be an airline specific event such as this (penalty should be harsher than 5 CI though and based on morale or something).  While I understand some airlines got into trouble on the customer service side during the Iceland volcano, there is nothing you can do in AWS to mitigate this--i.e. paying for temporary extra staff to avoid a CI hit, paying for hotels, etc.  All you can do is bend over and take it, which sucks

Also, CI seems to be more sensitive on the high end versus the low.  That is, first class and business class passengers.  If you are flying JFK to LHR and North America is shutdown, that means the airlines based at JFK aren't flying the route, but neither are the LHR pax.  When things settle down, the JFK airline is at a disadvantage as the LHR airline (likely) didn't suffer at all from the shutdown in terms of CI.  Those first/business class pax are smarter than economy because they are frequent travelers (typically).  A few CI points can make a big difference on the high end, but not so much on the low end.

Another thing to consider is what happens when an airline is based on multiple continents?  Russia comes to mind, but also France and I'm sure there are others.  See the attached route map of a guy based in France (I love this routemap lol).  His airline is essentially a different brand/CI at each base because they are so far apart.  So if there is a volcano that shuts down South America, do you think his CI in Europe or Oceania would get hit?  I would think pax would continue flying the airline as normal because the other events are half a world away.

So ultimately, I think a better solution is to not penalize CI for these massive blanket events, but penalize RI.  This makes more sense because of the above examples, but also because IMO pax are more likely to say "I'm not flying to London because of the Iceland volcano" versus "I'm not flying British Airways".  This also means that airlines that are geographically diverse such as the one in the attached routemap aren't losing passengers because of an uncontrollable event that happened 5000+ miles away.  I'm not sure how you'd do it, but maybe every day a route isn't flown due to force majeure you lose 7 RI points on the route?  That means 7 days at 7 RI points = maximum loss of 49%.  I think the net effect would be the same as a 5 CI drop, but wouldn't hit EVERY route you fly, just the ones affected.

[FlorianV]

So just experienced my first full shutdown in GW3, with a volcanic eruption shutting down all of Asia (pretty impressive indeed), two remarks

- The minor one - we still had thunderstorms slowing down traffic and an aircraft collision in Asia during the week while all of Asia was shut down - not possible.
- The major one - the passengers that weren't able to fly during the five days all seem to have fallen into a black hole - in reality you have tens of thousands of people stranded all over the place - shouldn't such a shutdown be followed by a big demand surge for the week after?

Cheers,
Florian