Fuel Prices - Historical correlation or just random? + Fare info

[pavlo]

Hi all,

I am based out of TLV and seem to have rather large variations in fuel pricing. I would like to know if the pricing is random, and varies by station, or has historical correlation to events and fuel costs? My fuel price is now $258 whereas one year ago it was $132, as you can imagine this is dramatically affecting profitability, even on very high traffic routes, and with the most fuel efficient aircraft available.

Is there a way to reduce this number, or do you just wait it out? Do certain countries have lower numbers?

Also, how can I see what the average fares are for all carriers on a route. In the real world, it is very easy to check, and mark your fares accordingly.

Thanks for the input 

[ali5541]

that's a tough one! i wish i can help you out, but I guess you'll have to wait for Sami.

Note to Sami:
Early this morning, I responded to the support ticket I sent in yesterday. I have not yet received a response. Thank You!

[Kontio]

The game uses real world historical fuel prices and the fuel price is the same for everyone regardless of where they are based. I think the varying fuel prices make this game very interesting and realistic because in the real world the price of fuel is a major issue for airlines.

You can't see the fares of the other airlines. You are probably thinking that in the real world airlines can just check each others prices on their websites or on travel websites, but it is not that simple. Ticket pricing is a very complicated business, the ticket prices vary depending on a number of factors and the airlines certainly don't know the average price of a ticket on a given flight (which is used in the game for simplicity). Please search the forum for extensive discussion of the subject.

[imapilot]

Actually that is not completely true.  Most airlines subsribe to an organization called Airline Tarriff Reporting Co (ATPCO) that keeps massive databases of filed fares on every route in the world.  ATPCO also allows airlines to file their fares at a single place and they are then published from 1 to 4 times a day to the various GDS systems (Sabre, Galileo, Apollo, etc). There are tools through ATPCO that allow you to pull up fares for specific markets, for now and infinetely in the past.  In that way, I can see exactly what US is charging on PHL-HVN on July 1, 1999 and compare it to July 1, 2000, etc, etc...  All publicly filed fares/tariffs are as they sound, public.  Many airlines do have private tariffs which include internet only, bulk fares, group fares, corporate fares, government fares, military fares, etc...

For the sake of this game, there is no reason to think that seeing a fare breakdown isnt unrealistic.

Also, US Airlines are required to report to the DOT through T100 data loads and yield numbers, which you can work backwards to arrive at educated guesses of fare class mixes.

Hope this helps!

[Kontio]

For the sake of this game, there is no reason to think that seeing a fare breakdown isnt unrealistic.

Very interesting. How would you see this implemented in the game? Show the mean ticket price for each airline on the route, as in many other similar games? Show an estimate of the mean ticket price for each airline with a degree of uncertainty (about how much uncertainty?)? Seeing the exact mean ticket prices in games like these often means airlines undercutting each others prices by one dollar at a time, something this game has managed to avoid so far.