If the problem we're solving is inexperienced airlines that have mistakenly taken out a long lease on a poor chosen plane, then I would suggest airlines with less than, say, 20 airplanes could be allowed to sub-lease/cancel the lease with a lesser penalty. After 20 planes then I'm not sure inexperienced newbie applies anymore.
Maybe we need to precise what newbie means.
That feature request I posted comes from a "real" situation, and the newbie in question is completely able to make valid scheduling and initially grow a successful airline, however his strategic choices are poor, and he cannot maintain a successful airline.
In a nutshell, he understood one part of the game, but not yet the other.
Solving the current situation should be possible IRL considering he's still in the black, has some assets, etc. Any bank / supplier / manufacturer / lessor would see there are some issues, but that they could still make money through this company and thus would propose a solution. But the current system of AWS prevents this kind of move at a stage in which it should still be possible. This is the problem I noted.
So in order to sort things out and respect the rules, we're forced to make wonky and nonsense moves. While I completely accept the rules and the spirit of the rules, I find that their translation to this context is broken as they fill one goal, but also prevent logical, legal moves.
Edit: Sami, the feedback from very experienced players is absolutely necessary, as they have a "professional" eye to the game. However I think that the experience of new players should also be considered and taken into account - the complexity of the mechanics of the game makes it very complicated if one is not completely involved, and their playing experience suffers from that. I really believe that it's possible to make a game for both hardcore player and "light" players, but finding the right balance is paramount. Thank you.