commonality - changes under the hood?

[groundbum2]

have commonality "penalties" being toned down a bit? I've not seen any notifications in the change log..

I ask as in DTM there is an airline with 700 aircraft spread across 7 fleets with a profit margin of 21%! Now fuel is low, but still I'm not at all sure this would be possible unless commonality has been defanged. There's another airline 4 fleets 450 aircraft 31% profit margin which is possible but with a LF of 55%?

Simon

[LemonButt]

I have 5 fleets across 1100 aircraft in Speedy Recovery with 10%+ profit.  I've found that the 4th fleet type is very expensive, but if you can afford the 4th then the 5th+ are basically free with no penalties.  The fact cargo is so profitable makes it that much easier.  I have a cargo only airline in AG that is profitable with only a 13% overall load factor.

[DanDan]

I have 5 fleets across 1100 aircraft in Speedy Recovery with 10%+ profit.  I've found that the 4th fleet type is very expensive, but if you can afford the 4th then the 5th+ are basically free with no penalties.  The fact cargo is so profitable makes it that much easier.  I have a cargo only airline in AG that is profitable with only a 13% overall load factor.

cargo is a terrible misrepresentation in AWS. cargo hasnt been making much profit at all actually, and with lots of overcapacity; so excepts for big logistics-providers (ups, fedex, dhl), some affiliates of large airlines flying a handful of planes as a "me too" offer (qatar, emirates, af, lh, ...) and a small niche market for government and oversized contracts, pure cargo was not feasible to make profits (before corona, that was).

and in AWS, pax is breaking even at 60 to 80, and cargo at 25 and even less %.

[Cardinal]

Aircraft size class matters too. A lot. VLA get exponentially higher penalties than Medium.

[gazzz0x2z]

Maintenance costs matters as well. A148s have double commmonality costs than CRJs, for example - their maintenance costs are double, too.

But, at the end, it's only points of margin. If your overall margin is far higher, who cares?

[MuzhikRB]

to balance cargo - all cargo fleets should be considered as separated family in terms of commonality. even if it is conversions

[gazzz0x2z]

Cargo is not unbalanced. It's just underused. With less opposition, you do more margin. I had once a cargo war, and I was not doing much money. But just once. Most of the time, it's indeed a freebie. But that's because players do not dare fly there.

Somewhere, in some game, I have a mentee who landed in a big airport, with tight opposition...but noone flying dedicated cargo. Guess what I advised him to begin with? Yeah, cargo start is hard, but not that hard in mid-game (the first flights have CI bonuses, and make a lot of money from day one. Just be careful with the next ones).

[DanDan]

Cargo is not unbalanced. It's just underused. With less opposition, you do more margin. I had once a cargo war, and I was not doing much money. But just once. Most of the time, it's indeed a freebie. But that's because players do not dare fly there.

Somewhere, in some game, I have a mentee who landed in a big airport, with tight opposition...but noone flying dedicated cargo. Guess what I advised him to begin with? Yeah, cargo start is hard, but not that hard in mid-game (the first flights have CI bonuses, and make a lot of money from day one. Just be careful with the next ones).

sorry, but if you can make a profit with 20% LF, underused is imho the wrong word.

[LemonButt]

sorry, but if you can make a profit with 20% LF, underused is imho the wrong word.

I don't think cargo is broken--it's built specifically for the needs of the cargo market.  My 13% LF airline is based in Ontario (overlap with LAX) and flying old DC10 freighters to shift demand and grow traffic/catchment radius.  Cargo MUST be skewed the way it is because of the asymmetric routes and heavy overlap of airports.  For example, Hong Kong to LAX is largely one way where you fly full from Hong Kong and empty back--that right there is 50% LF.  If you have competition and/or overlap splitting demand, that drops you down to 25%.  With that 25%, you will have oversupply putting your LF somewhere closer to 15-20%.  As a result, if there are 2 flights from Hong Kong to LAX and Ontario splitting demand with oversupply, those flights should be profitable.

If you can fly somewhere half full AND fly back half full, that return flight is pure profit.  Unless there are fifth freedom routes and/or ABCBA or other type of routes allowed, there isn't much you can do about the crazy potential of cargo.

[DanDan]

i didnt mean it to be broken as a software. i just meant it being not realistic, compared to rw cargo. understandably, the routing for cargo would need adaptations in AWS to make it more realistic.

[spiff23]

There are strategies to run more than 3 fleet types. I've done up to 7.  You definitely won't be the most profitable, but if you do it carefully you can go quite awhile with more than 3, especially in the low fuel price periods.  you will of course be amazed at the margin impact if you can go to 3.  Also does the airline in question lease out planes, that helps with case flow