Growing strategy

[Andrej720918]

Hello again mates!

I set up my airline in BW with easy mode, and I accepted a base at Tenerife as was offered by the game. From Tenerife there are a lot of demands to Spanish cities, so right now it is easy to grow, but when these routes are filled up I need more destinations. As I see that from Tenerife there are no demands to cities outside Spain, which means according to my logic that I need to find an other base from where I can find demands to European cities, right?

Thanks for your comments in advance.

[gazzz0x2z]

You mean Tenerife Norte? As Tenerife Sur has plenty of international demand.

But overall, yes, when you are full at one base, and have not fleet renewal to do soon, the thing to do is usually to expand in another base.

[Andrej720918]

Yes, it is Tenerife Norte, that was offered at the start. Anyway, I need to have the first year passed to get a base on the other airport, however as I read keeping a second base costs a lot of money.

[Andrej720918]

It is just a valid question if it makes sense to make a second base on Tenerife beside Tenerife Norde, or find an other city in Spain.

[gazzz0x2z]

With the current demand system, each airport is independant. You cannot steal demand from Sur being installed in Norte, so it's perfectly possible.

The question you have to ask yourself is : what unoccupied airport in Europe has a demand structure that fits your current fleet structure? I say Europe because usually, BWs do happen in eras with European open skies policy. Tenerife Sur requires longer range aircraft, as demand is very high from the UK and Germany, so depending on the planes you are flying, it may - or not - be a good choice. And if 3 companies are already installed there, taking 65% of the market, then it's a good idea to avoid the place anyways.

[Andrej720918]

Actually no airline is based on Tenerife Sur, but 15 other airlines are flying there from Europe. I am using the MD-80 family planes with which I had started, but I have now started to replace them with 737-800s. Probably looks wiser to find an other airport (e.g. Ibiza) which is closer to Europe as a second base.

[gazzz0x2z]

Actually no airline is based on Tenerife Sur, but 15 other airlines are flying there from Europe. I am using the MD-80 family planes with which I had started, but I have now started to replace them with 737-800s. Probably looks wiser to find an other airport (e.g. Ibiza) which is closer to Europe as a second base.

Just had a look at Tenerife Norte. I mapped the demand to spain, which basically I looked at all potential destinations in Spain. With 737s you can link :

La Gomera(OK, just 80 demand, but for a 54NM flight, it's enough to make money)
El Hierro : you can easiyl set up 2 daily flights. Why just 5 times a week?
Melilla : 130 demand, really enough for a single aisle flight
San Sebastian : 100 demand, not that much, but still playable, without opposition
Pamplona : 240 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Zaragoza : 220 demand; you can land 2 daily flights
Valladolid : 100 demand, you can land 1 daily flight
Santander : 240 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Granada : 230 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
La Coruna: 270 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Valladolid : 120 demand, you can land 1 daily flight
Asturias : 250 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Santa Cruz de la Palma : 800 demand, you have 4 daily flights, you can add 3 more. Be sure there is always a 1-hour gap between each take off
Jerez : 250 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Vigo : 250 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Murcia : 130 demand, you can land 1 daily flight
Santiago : 240 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Menorca : 230 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Ibiza : 310 demand, you can land 2 daily flights
Valencia : 310 demand, you can land 1 more daily flight
Lanzarote : Why is your Thirs flight flying only twice a week? I could be daily.
Alicante : 300 demand, you can land 1 more daily flight
Palma : 210 demand, you can land 2 daily flights, at least one
Barcelona, 700 demand, You could have 5 daily flights instead of your current 2
Madrid, 1100 demand, can afford 8 daily flights, your opponent has 3, you have 1. You can land 4 more


Seville, Bilbao, Malaga at 70 demand are probably not a good idea.

Once you have filled all that, you'll think about a new base. 100/120% filling of demand is not a big problem, in this game. Even better : it deters opposition from attacking.

[Andrej720918]

Thanks for the advice. Probably this is just my doubts but is it possible to make money with a 737-800 with only two daily flights, when it has 800000+ USD monthly leasing fee?

Probably I need to change pricing....I have not dealt with that too much in the initial phase to draw passengers. Is there any good pricing guide available?

[Andrej720918]

Or shall I get 737-600 for those routes and have higher LF? It has slightly lower fuel consumption, and requires shorter runway which can be sometimes an advantage on small airports like El Hierro.

[gazzz0x2z]

Thanks for the advice. Probably this is just my doubts but is it possible to make money with a 737-800 with only two daily flights, when it has 800000+ USD monthly leasing fee?

200k$ a week is not much. A properly priced and scheduled 737-800 on an unopposed route will net you between 500k$ and 1M$. Counting the leasing costs. Not counting the staff & marketing costs (count 250k$ weekly). The MD80 won't be far. Will cost more in fuel and maintenance, less in lease. You make indeed more money with 3 daily flights(I've got a 2M$ 737-800 in current GW3, with 3 daily flights), hence the importance of beginning your company with shorter flights, but I've got a 1.5M$ 737-800(LFPG - OJAI & LFPG - EGSS). Of course, this baby is owned, which reduces spending, but it would even make insane money while leased.

I've got even 1 flight only profitable 737s, in that GW3. The yield is inferior, but it's a good complement to shorter routes. You won't have that kinf of flight profiles from Tenerife Norte, though, so forget them for now. But you can do more than decent money with 2 daily flights to Mainland Spain.

Probably I need to change pricing....I have not dealt with that too much in the initial phase to draw passengers. Is there any good pricing guide available?

I shall write one, one day. Short summary : when you are rather unopposed(you are), and fly normal seating(you are), try to aim for 85% load factor(it's far more complex when routes are overbusy). go to the "manage routes" screen, "destinations view", and sort by average LF. Then, increase prices of everything above 97% by 30%, Anything above 94% by 20%, and anything above 90% by 10%.

That's not acurate(I'm fine tunig far more than that), but you should see the difference already.

Or shall I get 737-600 for those routes and have higher LF? It has slightly lower fuel consumption, and requires shorter runway which can be sometimes an advantage on small airports like El Hierro.

As soon as you have opened a fleet group, feel free to explore any option in this fleet group. For your size, though, you should stick to your current 2 fleet groups. I had not noticed El Hierro's limits, so you're probably spot on for that specific line. -600 is in the same group than -800, so you can use it for your lines with 100/110 demand.

[Andrej720918]

Thanks. Prices adjusted, I am waiting the result. 

So I must lease some more 737s, especially because my MDs are getting old and unreliable. Increasing number of technical problems.

I think I will use 737-800s with Y150C10 seating for bigger cities where there are demands for C seats. For other flights with lower demands maybe 737-600 with std 114Y seating.

[Andrej720918]

BTW is there any rough calculation method for seat prices? I mean for a 737-800 you can ask *** USD for every 100 miles or so.... 

Or is it better to play with prices up and down when I see LF changes?

[gazzz0x2z]

BTW is there any rough calculation method for seat prices? I mean for a 737-800 you can ask *** USD for every 100 miles or so.... 

Many players with big companies simply set up "standard" + x% prices, x varying with era, company image, and personal style of the player. The thing is, proper pricing depends on conditions. If you have 200 demand, 8 100-seaters from 4 different companies all embedded in a price war, you're not going to price the same as 2000 demand, and 8 180-seaters, all of them belongong to you. So the global approach(throuh routes, price management) is far from optimized, but micromanaging for adjustments becomes a chore, when your company grows. At 1200 airframes, you can't do it every real day anymore.

Or is it better to play with prices up and down when I see LF changes?

Well, that's what I do. With one caveat : it's extremely rare I do lower prices. Most of the time, when LF goes down, it means opposition is getting stronger. But I made a lot of experiments, and most of the time, reducing prices to have more LF was losing money(unless I was at insane prices already). So I don't pay attention to very low LF anymore(I've got some routes at 30%LF, well, that's life). High LF, OTOH, is a loss of money - on several days of the week, you keep unsold seats.

[Andrej720918]

"reducing prices to have more LF was losing money"

On the other hand it could happen that LG decreases while profit increases at the same time.