Ideas, Anyone?

[AirEuropa]

Just Started, and im planning to join a game, And start a low cost carrier airline named Air Europa, Which will service all of europe, mostly smaller destinations that not a lot of people use, and small hop flights from italy and other european costal countries to upper africa. Being new I was wondering if anyone had some tips on running a low cost carrier airline. Your advice would help me a lot, Thanks, And I hope your airline prospers.

[Dazwalsh]

welcome!

A few good tips for running a "low cost" airline

Keep to one class and pack your planes out with as much high density economy seating as you can
Keep to one or 2 types of aircraft, this will save millions on costs as you go on
Order that one or two types of aircraft in large quantities to get the maximum discount.
have your planes fly as much as possible, stopping only for the few hours in the night and for maintenance

keep to a domestic product, and chose your Hub wisely, secondary airports for example London stansted rather than London Heathrow

[Kontio]

Good tips from Dazwalsh there. However, I think the most important tip for someone who is going to run a "low cost" airline in this game is to remember that the game really doesn't support them. Don't lower your prices too much just because you think you are running a low cost airline, your costs (labour etc.) are not any lower than your competitors. Don't schedule the turnarounds too short, the game always assumes full service at every turnaround although in real life low cost carriers are experts at turning the planes around really fast. Even if you know something works in real life, the game has its own way of doing things and you have to remember that if you want to be succesful.

[T8KE0FF]

Welcome

Firstly, LCC's never really succeed here... trust me i know... So i would probably keep prices at about normal level, maybe about 5% less? And occasionly 10% less.
For A/C with an EU carrier I would DEFINATLEY go for some of the BAe 146's or some brand new Avro 100's. They are cheap to run and only need 2 cabin crew so less wages to pay. Plus they have around 85 seats so lots of €€€'s!! I only use them (Im AirSkye in cork with EU operations too) and they get me about $80,000 on a good day and on a bad day about $73,000.
Any other questions, just PM me!!

T8KE0FF

[thedr2]

keep to a domestic product, and chose your Hub wisely, secondary airports for example London stansted rather than London Heathrow

I would say that applies to IRL airlines, but not to ones in AirwaySim. AWS doesn't run on pax travel between cities, it runs on pax travel between airports. The larger the airport, the better. The exception to this, is of course that LHR gets oversaturated with many large airline fighting it out. If you're not one of those large airlines then you are unlikely to get far.

I've never been an LCC in game, but if I were to start one I would say you need to expend heavily on marketing. That may sound like it defeats the busines model, but in AWS $1 fares does not necessarily mean 100% market share. If your competitor has a superior product, you should be able to defeat him with a combination of high company image (at least 60/70) and low fares. Spend a lot of time playing with fares to find the fare that gives the highest profit.

Another point I would make, is to lease you aircraft on a cycle basis. I run this with my airline anyway, but it would apply more to an LCC. To keep maintenance costs at a minimum, lease new (or used a/c under 5yrs old) for 6/7 years or until the D-check is next due to expire. Plan to replace the aircraft with a new model just as the D-check is about to expire, and let the lessor pay for it!

I would really like to hear if you do suceed in your plan. I'm not sure AWS has a realistic enough industry model to cope with it, but it certainly should! (hint hint Sami!)