Is there a 'too large', 'not modern enough' or 'not fast enough' penalty?

[HankdeTank]

Hi everyone,

I know that when a route is oversupplied, an increase in frequency will increase the amount of demand your airline is able to capture.
I was wondering however if there is a penalty to airlines that offer either:
- 'too' large aircraft (even when you offer the same frequency as your competitor, but evidently providing more supply due to using bigger aircraft/ on routes where the 'too small' penalty would not apply);
- aircraft that are not 'modern' (i.e. piston or turboprop vs jet);
- aircraft that are slower (same as above).

Would any of the above reduce the percentage of demand you are able to capture?

Hank

[DanDan]

Hi everyone,

I know that when a route is oversupplied, an increase in frequency will increase the amount of demand your airline is able to capture.
I was wondering however if there is a penalty to airlines that offer either:
- 'too' large aircraft (even when you offer the same frequency as your competitor, but evidently providing more supply due to using bigger aircraft/ on routes where the 'too small' penalty would not apply);
- aircraft that are not 'modern' (i.e. piston or turboprop vs jet);
- aircraft that are slower (same as above).

Would any of the above reduce the percentage of demand you are able to capture?

Hank

never seen a too large penalty. usually it seems you get a few more customers if you provide a bigger plane than the competitor.

not modern: possibly, but hard to compare really between piston/jet e.g. because of the speed difference; speed is slightly preferred by customers, although it comes sometimes at the penalty of not being able to do overnight scheduling.

[groundbum2]

planes do have an attractiveness number. So Concorde is top of the tree as passengers want to fly on it, and Soviet planes are generally much lower down.

AWS essentially at midnight each game night looks at supply/demand and allocates passengers to specific flights. The algorithm essentially divides the number of pax, say 500, by the number of flights, say, 4. SO each flight gets 125 pax. If you have an 160 set A320 then your load factor is 80% approx. If you have a 747 then LF is 25% say. This is a gross simplification, ticket prices, CI,RI, attractiveness, departure and arrival time change who gets what, but not by much.

Simon

[HankdeTank]

Great, thanks for the info ;-)