New base slot costs

[Antoine]

Recently opened a new medium sized base at LGA in 2005.  I'm basing ERJ-135/140/145s and opening short haul routes. My slot costs are up at 1,300,000 per route! This price is regardless of time of day sometimes too. So for 5 routes per a/c this racks up a bill of over 5,000,000 in slots.

Why?

[Sami]

Depends on the airport's slot situation mostly. Less slots => Higher cost.

There are a lot of other factors, like if you are a new airline or fly at unpopular times etc, then they are cheaper.

[Antoine]

Yes of course I already understand most of these principals however paying 1.3 mil on a slot out of LaGuardia at 3pm with nearly full slots available isn't what was expected.

[gazzz0x2z]

Flying ERJs in a big airport is not a good idea. Too small for paying out the slots.

Well, "not a good idea" is a relative thing. If you keep them on short routes (at least 3 flights per day per plane), you're virtually unkillable. But your growth is gonna be desperately slow, especially when fuel costs rise. If you only fly long, thin routes, you're already dead.

[groundbum2]

the start of a game is a weird time, and calls for weird ways to play. Not enough money, not enough used market, bountiful virigin destinations etc etc.

I will often fly the A300 family for the first year as they tend to be cheap and have a lot of seats, so they get my pax curve up quick on uncrowded routes and get a quick return on those expensive slots rather than pennies and dimes on a little cutesy jet. But then after a year after a rocket launch I then transition to longer term fleets and yes have the pain of phasing out the A300s. But by then I have cash in the bank and can afford to think long term.

So treat the first couple of years of a gameworld as almost a "sub-game", then transition to a long term fleet plan. Also an airline is so small at this point that commonality penalties don't bite, that comes in at about 450 planes.

Simon