Combi/Freight Aircraft scheduling

[hjp766]

Hi. Having just started trying to learn the game (I usually do Airline 7 offline) I have been fiddling around with various 737s on mixed LH & SH. I suspect I am about to start attempt 3 (overaggressive expansion - I am getting closer to comprehesion) and just discovered the 737-700C (and am wishing I had got some).

My question is this. On low demand LH runs (we are talking c.80 pax daily) could you give them a freight schedule slot and not suffer or would the fact there are PAX on board mean you take a hit.

Also, relative to this and understanding freight etc. Is freight LF affected by route image, i.e. if I reset and ran a mix of regular/combi/freighter 737 (or whatever) does the freight LF exist instantly or do you need to have run the route for x days/weeks.

Thanks in advance.

[groundbum2]

1) pax care about time of departure and time of arrival just as much on a combi as on a pax plane. So 06-2359 are the sweet spots.

2) Freight is very very picky about RI, and doesn't care about CI. With a RI of 0, you can expect 40% LF pax and 1% LF freight. Freight load factor won't pickup properly until RI is 80 or so, which could take 8 months.

You mentioned 737, LH and combi all in one sentence which scared me! Passengers hate tech stops, whether combi or not. One tech stop usually kills 50% of pax demand, two tech stop kills 90% of pax demand. So on a 1000pax route, 1 tech stop 500 pax might consider you, two tech stops only 100 passengers might consider you. Depending on the decade, 90s onwards about, once somebody puts a direct on your tech stop route all your pax will flock to the direct flight leaving yours flying empty.

Also 737, LH, be aware of "too small". Passengers flying long haul prefer bigger widebodes, as they're more comfortable. So if there are more than 350 passengers on a route, the game might show a "too small" warning when you create the route. This isn't a guillotine yes/no warning, it slides from zero impact to massive impact. So keep an eye on pushing smaller planes out too far, just because it coud do it doesn't mean it should do it, tech stop or no tech stop.

Simon

[hjp766]

Thanks for the rapid answer.

They are all non-stop runs well inside a regular -700 range. My only annoyance with plotting is you can't seem to put flat beds in a combi 737. Sill, I am tempted to try again and go very slowly on expansion as I have found some routes which are at 3000NM with 20tonne freight 80 - 160 pax daily. The alternative is to bin the idea and just go 767 but that feels more awkward almost.

What is killing me is that whereas half the routes are well and truly in the green (70k plus daily with 102Y, 6C, 4T freight on the -700) the others without the startup bonus to RI are tanking. This is a steep learning curve.

I shall give it a couple of hours and either have recovered or start over.

[knobbygb]

I've tried using the 737-700C a few times and never had much success.  I've pretty much determined that a 737-800 configured with a smaller number of premium seats can be just as profitable (or more) on the routes you talk about (up to to 2500 miles). Once the MAX (MAX9 in particular) come along it's even less use having the 700C

Sure, the 800 carries FAR less Cargo, but don't forget you can then increase the prices if you are serving less than the available demand. The 800 uses pretty much the same amount of fuel as the 700 too.

The 700C carries 48Y in Standard pax. and up to 11.8 tonnes of cargo and will do well over 2500nm with a full load of both.  On the same route you could configure an 800 (with max extra tanks) with something like 6C 108Y (Premium not Standard, mostly to keep the total down) and carry 6 tonnes of cargo the same distance, with increased cargo prices.

It depends on the balance of pax. and freight on your route, but remember that Light Cargo is pretty worthless so you're going to want to carry all Standard in a combi if possible.  I'm guessing the routes you're trying have something like 15 to 20 tonnes of cargo available so there is probably only about 8t of Standard anyway. If you an find routes with 12t of Standard cargo, you can pretty much fly an 800 with +100% prices on that. Any Light cargo you also carry is a bonus.

Also remember that cargo is often one-way only. So, you're maybe going to be flying your 700C empty of cargo in one direction. If that's the case then you might as well at least have 114 pax. seats available rather than just 48.

The 700C isn't very flexible.  Once you obtain them, you're pretty much stuck with that config. At least you can experiment more with an 800 and then re-purpose it for regular pax. ops. if it doesn't work out. Also, check my figures - I don't have any of these in the games I'm currently playing (for good reason) so I'm going mostly from some old notes I made.  This is also probably a pretty 'advanced' technique so, as always when you're just learning the game, be careful, experiment a little and don't 100% believe everything people tell you here (including me).

[hjp766]

I am deliberately experimenting in this GW.

It is a 3500NM route with c. 80 pax demand and 40ish tonnes out, 12 ish back. As such I am tech stopping a 700C & 700F out and running both n/s back. The 700C has been clearing 6-700k weekly and leaving cargo behind both ways so if my sums work (bearing mind the RI has been bumped already and I am effectively doubling frequency) this could be a learning example of where the 700F & C work.