A330/A350 Common type Rating

[we74]

The A350 have been approved for a common type rating for pilots flying A330. This means that for this game the A330/A350 can be a single fleet type.

/ Anders W.

[Sami]

That alone does not mean it. The pilot certification is only one part, but then there is the maintenance, and most importantly the scheduling/speed stuff.

Have not compared 330 and 350 though, but as a general comment.

[Infinity]

But it raises a very valid point sami - staff training is the cost block that fluctuates the most when adding a fourth fleet. I switched over 336 767s to 787s yesterday (a marathon task in itself without automation, but that's a different topic). While I did that, I had a fourth fleet for a bit, and my crew training bill increased twentyfold (!). That is despite having a sizable 777 fleet as well and 787 and 777 having a common rating.

So while the maintenance is and should be very different 787 vs 777 and A350 vs A330, crew training should not be, yet it is where costs explode the most. You should really have a look into this.
I don't know how practicable it is to divide commonality up into maintenance and training, but it is worth considering. For example, an airline with A320, 737, 767 and A380 would pay for 4 fleets in both categories, but an airline with A320, 737, 777 and 787 should only pay for 4 fleets in maintenance while only paying for 3 in staff training.
This would take a lot of the pain out of fleet transitioning at least in the present/future part of scenarios, not so much in the past parts JA and DOTM.

/e just for reference, here is my expenses over 2 weeks, one with 3 fleets and the subsequent week with 4 fleets:

As you can see, the actual maintenance costs only rise by about 50% while the staff training costs rise by 1700% (this is not a typo), and this doesn't make any sense when taking into account common type ratings.

[gazzz0x2z]

While I understand the need, in terms of gameplay, to be punitive on too big fleets with too many fleet groups(to avoid big blobs that crush any opposition), Infinity raises a very valid point.

For example, There is 2020, in GW3, a healthy B737-300 production line - with still 2 years of backlog. That's not really realistic, and still people are ordering those inferior versions instead of switching to 737MAX. That's one of those typical cases where there shall be training communality - even of other communalities are still split(for speed, maintenance, administrative, and of course engines). 737MAX could even be a separate group from NGs for everything but training.

There are numerous families like that in the game, the 777-8X from 777-200/300, for example, the 320neo from the classic, the 747 successive iterations, the Fokker 120NG from the Fokker 70/100(30 years of technology iprovements between both, maintenance can't be made on the same way of thinking, even if training could be united)..... And I probably forget many others.

While I keep my opinion it should be prohibitive to have 4 TRUE different fleet types(as E120, E190, B757 & B747) to forbid the big boys to interdict small boys from existing, it should not be counter-productive to switch smoothly from 737-400 to 737-700(or MAX). Little costly, yes, like shown on Infinity's example about maintenance. But not a deadly move.

[Maxair]

I would add the 757/767 commonality debate to this also. Both aircraft have the exact same cockpit and systems. The only real difference is max takeoff weight and engine selection.