Competition in huge airports (JFK/Atlanta)

[HermanMango]

Its always best to be the only airline in an airport, but if you want to break into the international traffic market(at least in the US) I don't see any airports with even half the demand as JFK, so my question is will the extremely high demand of that airport make it practical to make a base there, even if there are 2 or three other airlines already there?

[gazzz0x2z]

depends on the game, and how players are playing. In gurrent GW3, year is 2024, and airport rankings are so :

1   Atlanta - Hartsfield-Jackson  United States   280 875 057 pax   (1)
2   Chicago - O'Hare  United States   263 624 294 pax   (2)
3   London Heathrow  United Kingdom   209 503 652 pax   (3)
4   Los Angeles  United States   205 074 661 pax   (4)
5   Dallas - Fort Worth  United States   186 670 058 pax   (5)
6   Paris - Charles De Gaulle  France   165 163 558 pax   (6)
7   New York - John F Kennedy  United States   141 892 730 pax   (7)

As you can see, JFK is 7th in the world, and 5th in the USA. For reference, there are 4 companies in Atlanta, 4 in Chicago, 3 in Heathrow, 3 in LAX, 5 in Dallas, 3 in CDG, and we are 4 in JFK, where I'm leader with 29% of market share.

This game has been extremely unusual, as Heathrow-based company had tough time to make money the first 20 years or so(while usually the few survivors of the initial bloodbath are leading all the rankings), and all companies in JFK BK'd in 2005, leading many players(including me) with HQ elsewhere in the US jumping to take their part of the cake.

To answer your question, all 4 companies with bases in JFK are doing good money. One is only at 6,69% profitability, others are between 15% and 24% of margin. And this is a real game, with higher difficulty settings, and quite a high level of competition. The thing to think about is bases above level 2(and therefore above medium planes) are costly to maintain, and you'd better land a lot of planes in JFK if you go for large or very large planes. With around 150 large aircraft, an 40 very large aircraft, I'l clearly profitable there, even with many opponents. But be sure to quickly grow there if you want to make good money. With dozens of big planes if you go big.

So do your homework, and use the research tool with narrow range limits to find possible destinations for your goals. If you want to fly 767s, for example, they shine especially between 300NM & 5000NM. 777s are better for very, very, very long range(but unadvised for new activity, as the investment is huge for very long routes, so better be strong before investing in those babies). If you prefer aiming smaller and easier to schedule, long-range 737 may do nice profit(but require several months to do so, while on well-choosen short range routes, they are profitable from day one, and more profitable overall - and don't fly them over 3500NM anyways).

Note also that overloading demand on a line can be profitable, but the lower the range, the better. If you just fill the demand on a 900NM line, you'll make impressive cash. On a 9000NM line, you'll barely break even. It's possible to make money on very short lines with 1000 demand and already 2000 seats offered. Don't even dream about it on long-range. So check "holes", and if you can realistically schedule 30-40 B767 or A330 or similar, then go. For less, especially if JFK is not your HQ, it might be preferable to stick with large airplanes(countless lines within the USA, quite a few nice ones with neighbours), or even with the biggest medium planes(E195, F100, J928) in the beginning, before having the backbone to invest in longer range lines.

[MRothschild]

Gazz, your reply was amazing.  Well done mate. 

[schro]

If you want some serious long haul that is likely undiscovered in the BW realm, take a look at PGUM.

Otherwise, in the lower 48, LAX will have the highest long haul demand numbers. JFK, SFO, HNL, and EWR will be up next. Another obscure one would be PGSN.