Is it time to open a new base?

[lpopa93]

Hi guys! I have an airline based in Munich, I currently have 31 leased aircraft operating, and three brand new aircraft coming this summer. I am hauling around 120 000 passengers per week, and I have 39% of the traffic going through Munich, second place competitor carries 12% of the traffic. At the moment I am flying all thee good destinations and recently I had to start fighting my competitors for more traffic, which is very costly and slow. I was thinking about opening a new base, should I do it or should I wait more and expand to the smaller airports in Europe? How much money should I have as a reserve when opening a new base?

[HM]

No idea!

[Cammellodacorsa]

Have you already scanned all you possible route if there are some destinations with enough demand?
Have you already found out if all international routes are covered?
And european?
How many fleet types do you already have? Are one of them with a decent range to cover also some smaller demand with smaller airplane to have the chance to expand in some unveiled destinations? (for example with fleet type Airbus 318/321 you can lease planes from 100 pax to 200).
Are all the routes settled with the correct plane?
Can you buy bigger planes to cover the major routes, moving the smaller ones (inside the same fleet type) to the new discovered routes?

Have you got already an answer to all those questions?

If yes, move to another base, if not....

[gazzz0x2z]

Depends on the kind of birds you're flying. But a 737 can lose quite a few millions before being profitable, and you'll need a few of them at each new base to make it break even. I'd say, you'd better have in cash the double of the base setup cost, while 4-5 planes are already ordered. Then, you should be quiet.

If you happen to find a place with a lot of unopposed short range routes, you can afford to go with far less reserves. But those spots are not obvious.

[lpopa93]

Considering it's a beginners world, which, as far as I know, allows more room for experiments, I made the step. Opening a new base was both a good idea and a bad idea. I was afraid to go to large airports which already have 4-6 companies based in there, so I chose an airport which is a bit smaller, but empty. My fleet on the new base consists of 10 brand new 100pax Embraers 190, and until now they seem to make some decent profit. The bad part is that I covered all the demanding routes, and the rest of it only have a 100-150pax/day demand, making my expansion difficult.

My first base has some routes uncovered, but I have 10 new 737-900 on order with some business class seats, which will take over some of the smaller -700s (economy only) on full routes which have good business class demand, and I will allocate new routes to the -700s. I am trying to keep over 80million into my account, and I only spend the money that's over this limit, so I can go through any cash crunches.

About routes being settled with the correct plane, I don't really know, I've only been playing this game for 10 days or so. I mostly have 737s, some 767s for longer routes, and two 747s on some really demanding routes. Except new routes, all aircraft have more than 85% load factor. The 747's, although making profit, have only 70% load factor.

Overall, I am pleased with how the company is doing, I am taking 56% of the traffic in my home airport, the next competitor based there has only 10% now. Two airlines went bankrupt. After one and a half game years, I own 53 aircraft, and I have 500milion operating revenue. I don't know how good is that, because this is the first time I play.

[gazzz0x2z]

Wouldn't be so forgiving in a real game... but it's neat. If you avoid big mistakes(too long & narrow routes, Routes with tech stops, too many fleet groups, bad pricing, too small planes on long routes, too big planes on short routes, bad fleet choices, unadequate pricing, planes under-use, flying popular(therefore expensive) brand new leased planes on low-yield routes(not enough demand, or too much competition), too low pricing, and did I mention bad pricing or launching a price war against a strong opponent?), you should survive a real game.

Note that I'm deliberately guilty of 3 & half of those mistakes, but now I've got enough experience to know when to fly long, narrow routes with small birds. Don't try it unless you've got plenty of margin. And the 1/2 mistake was forced by a tricky choice of second airport(London City is plenty of fun & opportunities, but the plane list is, errrrm, limitative, to say the least. Ejets are so in demand that their cost is insane in current GW3, while nearly as good J928 are half the price. And I couldn't go for them).

But it's soooooo funny to make SW3 fly between Edimburgh & Kangerlussuaq, or Nice & Bobo Dioulasso(don't expect any profit on those lines, ever, simply because of the tech stop, though, they are just for the fun. Noone else flies there, and I'm leader in served airports by 68 units. It's worth the few tenths of a percent margin loss).

And Never, ever, forget to adjust your prices. It's probably the mistake that kills the most companies. I make a lot of stupid things, but cannot afford this one. In beginner's world, who cares? But in competitive, long games, with fuel prices at 1350$ per ton and good planes having their prices doubled because of insane demand, you'd better milk your customer base as much as you can. Some players with huge companies do not micromanage prices as much as I do, but they very regularly adjust overall prices. They'd be overwhelmed without it. And if a player launches a price war against you, bite the bullet, but don't go too far down. Let him die out of underpricing.