Expenses - what are the worst ones?

[charger27]

When I started Game 3 - I built up a fleet of 8 aircraft very quickly.
Seemed like every morning when I turned on the computer, I had 6 - 8 million to spend that had banked overnight.

When I hit 16 planes, my income became a trickle - while my route percentages stayed about the same (78 - 97).
In other words, the revenue is there - but my expenses have become a huge problem.
Now I am lucky to be able to buy 1 plane per day with a loan!

Looking back to the last point of productivity - was just prior to buying a 747-200 that was 14 years old, then a 747SP that was 15 years old.
As of today I have "bit the bullet" and terminated the lease on the 742, and plan to do the same with the SP if I can garner enough money in the near future.

Anyone have experience with this?
Am I right in assuming age vs. maintenance in my big problem, or are there other things within the airline setup I should be looking at?

As of now, I will have roughly 3 game days of profits around 1.5 million total, followed by 2 game days of killer expense adding up to approx. 1.2 mil.
Would be nice to figure out my problem as it was more fun when I could build at will.

Any advice is appreciated.

[charger27]

I don't know - I am thinking of resetting my airline.
You would think 16 planes on well maintained profitable routes would earn alot more money than 8.
That is not AT ALL the case.

Now my original planes are hitting C-checks, and I am not financially prepared for it.
This is frustrating.

My big problem is I am now in danger of losing leases on the planes I WANT to keep.
I wish I knew what the "danger" expenses were, so I don't keep wandering into the same thing.

Right now it looks to me that any used aircraft bigger than a 767-300ER is not a good investment.
I am going on the knowledge that when I ran 757's and 767's - I made big money.
Add 747's (even though they are on long revenue generating routes) and my profit margin is reduced to virtually zero.

Also, I do not really see a benefit to alliances.
Again, my profit increase vs. the expense of being a member doesn't appear to be justified.

Suggestions are welcome.

[highways1]

Hi Charger. I had the same problem as you. I had built a fleet of 97 aircraft at JFK in game 2, facing two big competitors but it eventually became too much and I had to restart. How is your fleet commonality? Being able to stick with four or five different ones can save a lot of money down the road because the more of those kinds of planes you have, the less their individual costs will become. Of course, this can be hard to do, especially depending on the demands of your route network. Another thing, do you staff manually or automatically? I staffed automatically the first time, and the costs swallowed me up. I suggest staffing manually, and going slightly higher than the minimum on pilots and cabin crew so flights aren't delayed. The final thing is that costs always increase over time due to plane age and your yields will decrease as competition increases on your routes. Hope this helps.

[charger27]

Hi Charger. I had the same problem as you. I had built a fleet of 97 aircraft at JFK in game 2, facing two big competitors but it eventually became too much and I had to restart. How is your fleet commonality? Being able to stick with four or five different ones can save a lot of money down the road because the more of those kinds of planes you have, the less their individual costs will become. Of course, this can be hard to do, especially depending on the demands of your route network. Another thing, do you staff manually or automatically? I staffed automatically the first time, and the costs swallowed me up. I suggest staffing manually, and going slightly higher than the minimum on pilots and cabin crew so flights aren't delayed. The final thing is that costs always increase over time due to plane age and your yields will decrease as competition increases on your routes. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the response.
I have tried to keep my commonality within reason, but sometimes the availability of used aircraft is scarce.
I started with 757's and 767's, added an A310 due to no 57's and 67's around... and had no problem making money at that point.
It seems when I added my (2) 747-200's and (1) 747SP for international routes, that is when things started to take a tumble.

One of my 742's was pretty new, so the maintenance is down.
However, one of the 742's and the SP were each around 15 years old, and the maintenance was roughly double any other plane in the fleet!
I've decided anything older than 12 years is gone... that seems to be where things start to climb rapidly (at least with the big aircraft).

My other question for those with the experience... routes with waypoints vs. straight returns - anyone see a big difference?
I fly all my planes on routes with a second stop.

[Talentz]

Hello, how are you?

Expenses eh? Well, overall, I would say labor. Next would be fleet commonality.

As to why your airline(s) are not doing so hot?

Game 3: Looking at your fleet commonality, I can see why profit margin suddenly dropped. 5 different fleet types with only 15 aircraft. You should have 1-2 max with this small of a fleet. Also, in order to get "good" fleet common rates, you should have at least 10 aircraft of 1 type. That A310 looks nice, but if you open up the fleet comon page, bet it shows something like 450k per month upkeep, right? Those 747s are not cheap either. Each is probably costing you 500k a piece. Which is fine, if your 747s were on big international routes. But there not. Least, not to start.

Which brings me to routes: PHX is a domestic airport. Almost no LH international. So, you shouldnt be worrying about widebodies at this stage of the game. Maybe when your big and sitting on billions, then jump into LH aircraft. But, PHX cant support it. Thats a strike against you.

So that right there would be the killer. Forcing yourself to run "continuations" through heavy competition is killing your yields. You can "grow" even with horrid fleet commonality.. only IF you bring in enough income to pay for it. Domestic will never bring enough. Only pure LH flying will do that.


Game 1: Based at SFO. Decent airport. No major airline there. Though looks like the major airlines (me included) have raped the routes pretty good...

You have 2 fleet types.. which is ok, for now. Make sure and stick with them.

Routes: Your SYD route is a wash.. shouldnt bother with it. Seats are way oversold, and neither of your competitors will back down. Trust me on this.

NRT on the other hand is not bad. Could maybe add more flights when your company Image/route image get higher. I would try and look for open routes that A.) can support your widebody fleet. B.) Are open/have no competition. Fighting with the big airlines at this point will only result in your slow death.

As for domestic.. well, you already have 2 fleet types. Adding a third would hurt. Maybe try and find another DC-10 and drop the TriStar. That would give you 1 fleet type. Then you could add 1 narrowbody type. Remember, fleet commonality! After that, find routes that have no competition. There are plenty of them. Look past the first page 

Your goal for now should be a ninja. Find your niche until you have enough income to fight the bigger airlines. Then, you can go from there.



Game 2: You were at IAH a few min ago... but I dont see you anymore.. I assume belly up?


The sum of this would be: Fleet commonality! Pick the right aircraft for what your base/operation will allow. Fleet Commonality! Stay low and out of sight until you have then income to take on someone bigger.

Fleet commonality kills alot of players. However, auto staff is a silent killer. It lets you think its great to leave it on.. but really, it always works against you 


Hopefully, this will help.

Good luck!


Talentz

[charger27]

Great post, thanks for the tips.

My 1 and 2 games were just "testers" for routes, and I wasn't too concerned whether they went down or not.
3 is SUPPOSED to be the real game. 

I am fairly new, so I'm just looking for the pitfalls - unfortunately it looks like I will have to restart 3... but I have definitely learned a few things.
The other thing I am finding is for intercontinental, one had better configure (or buy a preconfigured) aircraft... you can't get max. revenue out of a straight Y on longhaul.
In game 1, I happened across a DC10 that had all 3 classes... wow, what a difference!

As I am finding out, commonality appears to be the biggest issue (and a quick killer) - with aircraft age and maintenance following closely behind.
I notice some significant differences in the 757 and the 767 here... IRL they are alot more similar (even for air crew training) than is represented in the game.
We have a family friend who has over 20 years into Air Canada... so I get some useful info from him.

Anyway, this game is great for air industry fanatics like me - and I will keep trying to find the groove.