Worst Aircraft You Can Operate In The Game?

[rntair]

By the metrics of maintenance costs, fuel consumption, and price of purchase.

[schro]

Maintenance costs and fuel go to the Russians. Take your pick as most qualify.

Purchase price goes to all of the late generation jets like the 777-9x, 787, a350. Priced are so high that they just don't pay out.

[gazzz0x2z]

Flying IL-62M in the late 90s is a mistake that nearly BK'd me in my first game. Crews of 5 pilots for a very large aircraft in the UK is just a killer, not even counting fuel consuption or maintenance.

I agree also with Schro on latest flying things. Well-established players are so wealthy that they can afford to purchase directly 49 777-9X at once. Which pushes prices even higher. I took them anyways, but the last 10 game years won't be enough to make them pay their value. Surely, if you lease them, you're dead. Even bought, they're not that interesting. It's year 2020 and you can still buy A300-600R. Three times cheaper than a A350, for the same capacity. If you have plenty of big destinations in the 2500-4000NM range, it's just a kickass plane, at this price. Even in 2020.

Purchasing prices is also a trap : depending on other player's actions, the fleet is in demand, or not. SSJ is a real surprise each game, sometimes very costly, sometimes not at all. Same for MRJ, I've seen them at 32M$, and also at 65M$. For similar capability with an A148 at 15M$ each. Of course, the MRJ kicks ass. But if it's at 65M$, don't lease it new. At 32M$, it might be worth it, I'm not sure. If you can purchase, OTOH, jump on it at 32M$, and think about it at 65M$.

[Wagster]

Any aircraft I operate. I got bored of the game but instead of quitting I'm trying to run airlines with the worst but still functional aircraft.

I began Game World 1 using the Tupolev 104. It was a HUGE SUCCESS, actually... High maintenance, high fuel consumption, low purchasing price.

It seems that before the 1970's everything is so cheap any plane will do.

But from the 80's onward the real game begins.

I replaced the Tu-104's with the HS 121 Trident because I had tried almost every other model already.

The HS 121 is s*** and I vote on it for the worst plane you can operate in the game. It has three engines, it uses one less pilot staff but one more cabin staff so the number of staff remains the same as the Tu-104, it's thirsty, I need to either replace the 1C model or buy worthless hush kits urgently (I don't even know if there are hush kits for the 1C and early replacement sounds better than investing in a bleeding trash can anyway), it flies very fast but turn around times aren't modern enough so it doesn't have much advantage over competing planes, price is cheaper than buying the 737 or DC-9 late but still higher than it's worth, and maintenance costs seemingly escalate on an exponential scale with just a little bit of age (it feels as bad as in-game russian aircraft).

This plane will be the end of me if the used market isn't immediately flooded by early 737/dc-9's. I'll be reduced back to a short range regional airline, like it's 1960 all over again. If you're reading this, guy who keeps opening and bankrupting at my airport every game decade, this is your best shot so far.

[wapp11]

IL-86. I tried it once in a BW.  Once it takes off its out of fuel and needs to land. Good for flights from Heathrow to Gatwick, but can't use O'Hare to Midway, runway is too short at Midway. 

[gazzz0x2z]

(.../...)Purchase price goes to all of the late generation jets like the 777-9x, 787, a350. Priced are so high that they just don't pay out.

Back to that point, I'm making a few tests in current GW3 with 777-9X. One pack of 7 runs on 5 routes, 4 of which are unopposed. Weekly profit is shown around 1.8M$ for them. Minus the staff and other fees(commonality, marketing), it"s more around 1.2M$. Take off the taxes, you're at 800k$ per week. That's 40M$ per year. for birds that did cost me 340M$. In other words, I' will be just even when the game world will be finished. And that's with planes ordered before the model when public. Right now, they'd cost me around 400M$ each, ordered by 40, fully prepaid. 10 years of ROI, not counting the D-check(6M$ of cost, plus 80 days grounded. Argh).

So they are barely profitable in a nearly perfect setting. As soon as you're not in the ideal setting, you're screwed : if you lease, or if you have opposition, you can never make money with those costly birds. The 777 is really the Rolls-Royce of ultra long haul. Extremely cool, but insanely costly To buy. 787 seem less insane, but only if you fly on routes where not all demand is filled - so you can kill customers with punitive prices. A350-1000 seem notably less costly than 777-9X, for nearly similar capability - you can probably break even before the first D-Check, assuming you're flying on routes with a civilized level of opposition, and you by them by packs of 42, and you don't need to fly up to 8500NM. I do need - many lines to Australia are just perfect in terms of demand(at least 360) and opposition(none).

[knobbygb]

Has anyone tried running the Yak-40?  A 31-seat trijet! The fuel consumption doesn't look THAT bad actually - 119 lb/hr/seat versus 91 lb/hr/seat on an F28 mk.3000 which is the smallest other jet available now (it's 1986 in this game) with 65 HD seats or 69 lb/hr/seat on a DC-9-10 (100HD) which is the smallest 'sensible' aircraft I can see. The maintenance looks OK too - currently $335k for a D-check on the brand new Yak versus $819k for the Fokker and $1,397k for the DC9. Crewing is 3+1 for the Yak and 2+2 for the others I mention.

Actually - I've convinced myself - I'm going to get some!

[gazzz0x2z]

From what I see, the Yak40 is a drunkard like a jet, and flies as slowly as a turboprop. The worse of both worlds. If you manage to make money with it, you're better than me. Hey, even the VFW614 is vastly superior : due to its speed, it in facts drinks less fuel, transports 44 pax instead of 31, has one less cabin crew, and flies quick enough to allow more daily flights.

Have fun!

[kscessandriver]

Has anyone tried running the Yak-40?  A 31-seat trijet! The fuel consumption doesn't look THAT bad actually - 119 lb/hr/seat versus 91 lb/hr/seat on an F28 mk.3000 which is the smallest other jet available now (it's 1986 in this game) with 65 HD seats or 69 lb/hr/seat on a DC-9-10 (100HD) which is the smallest 'sensible' aircraft I can see. The maintenance looks OK too - currently $335k for a D-check on the brand new Yak versus $819k for the Fokker and $1,397k for the DC9. Crewing is 3+1 for the Yak and 2+2 for the others I mention.

Actually - I've convinced myself - I'm going to get some!

I ran a marginally successful US based regional airline in GW2 2 with Beech 99s and Yak 40s, in the 1980s. Of course, when fuel is cheap the Yak 40 isn't bad, as there aren't many small RJ options. I had them for probably 10-15 years at which point the E-120 came out and I could have a similar airplane that was way cheaper to operate.

MX gets expensive in a hurry, so they're a good stop gap airplane for 15 years or so, unless you decide to keep the line open to keep getting new planes