Private Game Worlds

[clementinedunedin]

Is it possible to implement a game world on an account where there is no other players, no competition and no limits on bases and number of aircraft? Imagine how fun that would be just ruling the world having bases at the biggest airports and having demand all to yourself. Not sure how easy that would be for sami. Any thoughts?

[tise1983]

The competition is what makes this fun, otherwise you would get bored

[Lakitel]

 Yeah, it would be a single-based campaign for a game based on MMO. I mean, unless AI airlines get implemented (which they probably won't), then it would be incredibly boring.

[skostep]

The issue is that it's really hard to get into the game if you are late. Any worthwhile airports and routes are taken.

[Helix]

The issue is that it's really hard to get into the game if you are late. Any worthwhile airports and routes are taken.

Then you are not looking either good enough or not at all. You could start at GW2 in CDG, one of the biggest Airports in the world. Enough Slots available, Routes with over 1000 demand only around 80 to 110% filled. Plenty of stuff to do you just have to bother to look around.

[skostep]

Then you are not looking either good enough or not at all. You could start at GW2 in CDG, one of the biggest Airports in the world. Enough Slots available, Routes with over 1000 demand only around 80 to 110% filled. Plenty of stuff to do you just have to bother to look around.

Thanks. Still learning the game. What % about capacity can you go on routes and still pull a decent margin?

[gazzz0x2z]

150%, roughly. Not with a single plane, but I'm making decent money on lines with 300 capacity, and 6 70-seaters competing.

It also depends on the circumstances. I'm having a decent profit on this :



Of course, it works only on very short routes(less than 120NM for that one). It's one of the very few situations where decreasing prices reaps rewards. On detail, I'm having 15 ERJ145, and my opponents 20+ A320. Do not try this on 1500NM routes, you'd be dead in no time.

[Cardinal]

What % about capacity can you go on routes and still pull a decent margin?

That really depends on the route and the plane you use on it. But I'll give you a couple of examples:

GW2:
Mexico City - Panama City (MEX-PTY)
Estimated demand: 280 (330 Max on Friday, as few as 240 on Saturday)
I serve the route with two daily 737-700. My competitor has four E190 on the route. Total daily seats on the route is over 650. So neither of us has fabulous load factors. My overall LF on the route is 41%, but it is making money. It's got a yield of $0.12 per RPK, which is better than my 777 routes do with 92% loads.

In fact, 100% of my short/medium-haul routes and most of my long-haul routes from Mexico City has at least one competitor, either the other player based in MEX or the player on the other end of the route (or both).

GW1:
Bahrain - Gdansk (BAH-GDN)
Estimated demand: 130 (150 Max on Friday, about 115 on weekends)
I fly a 163-seat MD83 on the route. Competitor flies a 125-seat 737-300. Total daily seats is 288, just over double the demand. I have a whopping 29% LF on the route but because I charge a high enough fare and there are at least 47 people willing to pay to ride my MD83, it pulls in about $13k a day. Not great, and routes like this are balanced with fuller planes elsewhere, but if I only flew routes with no competition I'd only need about six planes instead of 133. Again, nearly all of my short/medium-haul routes have competition from the other end of the route (I am the only airline based in Bahrain) and about half of my long-haul routes have competition, and yet I average a net profit of over $10M/week.

Long story short: don't shy away from competition. If there is demand, even if it is already served, people will fly on your planes. That said, if the demand is 1000 pax a day and there are eight airlines all flying 1500 seats a day for a total of 12x the daily demand, trying to carve yourself a piece out of that pie with an A380 is going to be the fast-track to bankruptcy.

If you want to try your hand at a present-day game, take a look at Game World #2. There's only 15 game years left, or about 4 1/2 months (ending in mid-January). The number of active players has dropped below 200, as it often does with a mature long game world. This one started in 1960 and has been going for longer than a year. There have been some recent large bankruptcies. If you want to start in the US, look outside the big hubs. Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, those are full of mega-airlines all trying to beat each other to death. But Baltimore only has one airline, as do San Diego and Cincinnati. Raleigh is empty and a startup could have a lot of 50-seat routes to themselves. That would be a good place to start a Q400 carrier.