An Idea.

[elsholtzd]

So, I was desperately trying to save one of my running airlines when I had a thought; what if charter fleet and holiday companies were a thing?

In my world both would work on a contract-based system.
Charter contracts would be available as one-time things. So lets say my best airline, Turkmenistan Air Service has a spare 737, I could access the charter page and see if any contracts were available that I could fly. It wouldn't be a huge money-maker but as a "side-hustle" I think it could make the game interesting.

Holiday flight contracts for me, are something that NEEDS to be in game. Take Exeter Airport as an example - in game the demand to fly from Exeter to Paphos, Cyprus is non-existent, however, in reality TUI Airways fills a 737 twice a week (I've been on it - awful landing!). So, to add this to the game I propose a contract-based plan where a "Travel Company" offers to pay for 150 seats with a 10% discount per seat on wednesdays from Exeter to Paphos, other travel companies want similar things and so you lease a 737/A320/A220 and schedule those routes, you then accept the contract and lo and behold! You have 150 seats pre-bought. I would also implement a penalty for stopping the flights before the contract ends. This just adds another layer of playability and fun to the game.

Thoughts?

[Jibberjabber]

Seems like an interesting idea

[gazzz0x2z]

that would be damn specific. Grenoble would have only winter flights, 70% of them on saturdays, the rest on sundays. Each airport would be different. That's a lot of parameters to enter.

[DanDan]

currently, there is a lot of routes with demand ~60 per day. so in real life, the airlines would do just as described: two weekly flights, makes 350 seats available for a weekly 400 demand. but in AWS, passengers insist on flying on that particular day and are not flexible - so not your regular package tourist

what would really help there is, if demand would be able to jump from one weekday to another.

[elsholtzd]

currently, there is a lot of routes with demand ~60 per day. so in real life, the airlines would do just as described: two weekly flights, makes 350 seats available for a weekly 400 demand. but in AWS, passengers insist on flying on that particular day and are not flexible - so not your regular package tourist

what would really help there is, if demand would be able to jump from one weekday to another.

Yesss, That seems like a good idea to begin with

[groundbum2]

hopefully passenger CBD would model this,as cargo does. So if the 5 airports around London all have 60 demand, and no supply. Then when somebody puts a 737 from say Stanstead then all 5x60 move across to Stanstead etc.

Hopefully V2.0 CBD would model Ryanair. Before low-cost only the rich could go on city breaks and have holiday homes in France, Spain etc. In comes Ryanair to obscure airports and over years traffic goes from 50 to 200 as people buy houses or take city breaks on £9.99 fares. So the market grows where airlines fly to. Right now demand is static and has no relation to flights offered. Even the current CBD is static, it simply moves between airports in the same catchment area.

Simon

[samomuransky]

Having flying contracts in the game would make it much more fun, especially at later states where it sometimes get a bit routine. I would love a bidding system - customer publishes its demands (route, date, allowed timings, minimal required seating comfort) and airlines would then bid for the contract. The main factor would most likely be a price, but perhaps there could be some extra points for better comfort, timing, etc. Various contracts would have various requirements, just like in real life. Contract could be for a regular service (e.g. PSO for islands which have no commercial service), or an one-off service. Conditions could be different for various airline types, for example, government contract may request flight to take place in a very specific time window, while travel agency taking their customers to Mallorca would be ok with any odd timing. I think it could be quite fun

Shifting demand to another day, if there is no flight (by any airline) on that specific day would also help a lot.