Cargo Strategies

[stealy]

Hi all! I started playing this game last week and I am in love. A very interesting, in-depth game that requires actual thinking and planning skills. I find this much better and more realistic than a certain airline management game on facebook that I played for two years until I got bored of pressing "start routes" everyday. Anyways...

After moderate success in BW1, I started another airline in BW2 and it includes cargo feature. Currently, I only operate cargo through the underbelly of my passenger aircrafts and the results vary depending on the demand and RI. I understand the basics of cargo after lurking on the forums and reading the manual. To my understanding, cargo heavily depends on RI, but doesn't care about the time of departure/arrival. And it's using city based demand. I would love to expand my cargo operations through freighter planes in the future and I am wondering when is a good time to start. My airline is 136 days old and I have 18 leased aircrafts in my fleet (17 A320 family, 1 A330/340 family). I am quickly expanding my domestic Japanese markets and short-haul international markets within Asia. All routes are underserved with small or no competitions, so I am sure going to be able to mark up the prices once their RI go up.

Since cargo is heavily dependent on RI, is it a viable strategy to build up the RI with passenger planes and then add cargo service later? How juicy is a cargo route with 100 RI and proper demand?

What cargo plane do you suggest I use? There's no cargo variant for the A320 family, so my options are limited. A330-200F seems like a decent choice assuming I continue the A330/340 fleet. However, I am not committed to A330/340 fleet and may switch to the 787 or 350 for my future long-haul operations. Then again, there's no cargo variant for those fleets...

I would like to keep my fleet types to 2 or 3 this time in preparation for the full game world. Any suggestions or strategies you Pros would like to offer? I appreciate all the help!

[Sami]

Cargo plane selection is still a bit limited, but more are added bit by bit (time permitting).

And it is not at all a bad idea to fly pax/cargo ops to build RI and only later add pure freighters. However the potential vs actual demand growth of city based demand favors the start of pure cargo operations right away. But better to play it safe if you are a new airline.

[stealy]

Thanks for the info! Right after I made this topic, I saw a news update that A320 and A321 freighter conversions are now available. That's good news for me. Let's just hope the price of conversion isn't outrageous. 

[Talentz]

Welcome to AWS~

If your based in Japan and looking to move alot of cargo, I would recommend the 777 family. The 77E and 77W have excellent max payload ranges for there class. Often better payload performance over most of the A333/A340 Srs. It comes with the 777 Freighter which has many advantages over the A332F.

Japan overall has very strong cargo demand along with solid LH pax routes. Compare the families and see which one is better suited.


Talentz

[JumboShrimp]

While the 777 Freighter may be a good fit for Japan, but it is a very expensive, and will probably lose $1m to $1.5m per week initially if flying low RI routes.  Could very well lead to bankruptcy of an airline that is not already very profitable.

I see you have leased 752F, which is an excellent cargo aircraft and also a lot lower risk.  It should become very profitable much quicker.

[stealy]

Thanks all.

I will consider the 777 family. The only thing holding me back is the price of those jets.

And yes, I leased a 757F to test out the water for cargo operations. It’s relatively cheap, under 600K/month to lease used, has a decent sized cargo capacity, and rather fuel efficient compared to other freighters. I am using it on a route with 50 RI and already making 100K+ profit per trip with only a 35% LF. I can’t imagine what my profit will be like at 100 RI and near full LF. Now if only there are more used 757F available on the used market... 

*update: 757F is generating 330K daily profit for me on the same route with 100 RI

[zzzortan]

My strategy for cargo:

Just fly the passengers, and let the cargo sort itself out. you still get all the passenger revenue, just like the worlds without cargo, but you get the added bonus if you're lucky. However, there are always routes with passenger demand and no cargo demand, which can be annoying, but isn't the dealbreaker for me. However, if I were to become more invested in cargo operations, I personally would get one of the small props, I think I saw a SF-340 freighter on the market, and there are probably others around there. They are probably good, since they can handle low demand - and I, for one would be cautious around that just starting out.

[wilian.souza2]

Flying pax is still much better than flying cargo - I tell this from my experience operating in South America. Maybe in the first world you can do well flying only cargo, but be careful about the handling fees, which are much bigger. However, the advantage of cargo ops is that you can fill your plane right when you open the route if there's enough demand for so.

[stealy]

Thanks all for the ideas. Cargo between Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Europe are absolutely amazing. I am making at least 1 million dollars in profit each 5000+ NM trip using 777 freighter. It was not easy getting started, but once you are established, the money just flows right in.

Long-haul cargo flights are the best in my opinion. You pay the same handling fees (90% sure based on experience...) whether it's a 200NM or 6000NM flight. All of my long-haul cargo routes are pax routes at first, then as the RI reaches around 80 and I see enoguh demand, I put a 777F and start banking in $$$ like no others.

If you are based in a "first world" country and a major international airport, you should definitely give cargo a try.

[JumboShrimp]

Thanks all for the ideas. Cargo between Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, and Europe are absolutely amazing. I am making at least 1 million dollars in profit each 5000+ NM trip using 777 freighter. It was not easy getting started, but once you are established, the money just flows right in.

Long-haul cargo flights are the best in my opinion. You pay the same handling fees (90% sure based on experience...) whether it's a 200NM or 6000NM flight. All of my long-haul cargo routes are pax routes at first, then as the RI reaches around 80 and I see enoguh demand, I put a 777F and start banking in $$$ like no others.

If you are based in a "first world" country and a major international airport, you should definitely give cargo a try.

Works great while no one else is competing.  If you had a competitor with a 757F, he could fly 2 or 3 flights per each one of the 777F, leaving the 777F nearly empty, while the 757F will be full.

(Just something to consider if you want to deploy this strategy in a full game world)

[stealy]

That's an interesting point.

Are you certain that cargo distributes the same way as pax? I currently have no competitor flying 757F long-haul to compete in my 777F routes. Also, does tech-stop affect cargo the same way it affects passengers? If so, 777F might have an advantage in that it has longer range than other freighters. I can fly to the west coast of US and some EU countries from Japan in my 777F without a tech-stop. Most if not all destinations in the world can be done with a single tech-stop.

[JumboShrimp]

That's an interesting point.

Are you certain that cargo distributes the same way as pax? I currently have no competitor flying 757F long-haul to compete in my 777F routes. Also, does tech-stop affect cargo the same way it affects passengers? If so, 777F might have an advantage in that it has longer range than other freighters. I can fly to the west coast of US and some EU countries from Japan in my 777F without a tech-stop. Most if not all destinations in the world can be done with a single tech-stop.

Cargo is not very sensitive to tech stops, but I will post here.  GW3 is about to get 777F.

If my assumption is correct, that tech stop does not make a material difference in cargo, then when comparing 2x 757F vs. 1x 777F on an oversupplied route, The result we will most likely get is:
- Revenue: 200% in favor of 2x 757.  May be a little less than 200% (2 flight vs. 1), but much closer to 200% than to 75% the capacity would suggest (102,000 kg vs. 78,000 kg)
- Landing fees: single 777F is 50% more than 2x 757F
- Handling fees: single 777F is about 25% less than 2x 757F
- Ground handling: is per kg
- Pilots: 4x Large positions  vs. 2x Very Large positions.  But the system allocates a multiple for each position, and the multiple differs.  Large may be 8 per position, Very Large may be 12 per position.  Salary is also significantly different.  My guess is that 2x 757F is slightly cheaper than 1x777F

Summary:
- 2x 757F will give you 2x Revenue at approximately the same (or lower) cost on a heavily oversupplied route.
- 777F is great in a sandbox, likely very bad in a competitive situation
- 757F is great in a competitive world, good in a sandbox, much quicker to turn profit on a new route