Fleet commonality - too much when small?

[Pilot Jeb]

My airline is making money, but I'm currently at 4 different aircraft fleets; about to get a 5th (but will be using it to replace one of the original 4). Was just trying to get as many production slots as early as possible on new aircraft since there wasn't any used aircraft to go after so early on. Is having that many different aircraft types okay? I know it's recommended to try and stick to 3 aircraft fleet types. Also, I only have 26 aircraft right now.

[SwizzAir]

Ciao, Jeb.

You can have as many aircraft types as you want, but the more you have, the more it costs (staff, maintenance, etc.). There's no rule against it, as far as I'm aware. It's typically better, when small, to reduce costs by limiting the number of types, but if you're making money, buy the planes that suit your ambitions! Reach to the skies, so to speak

[knobbygb]

Yeah, the REAL penalties you've heard about for having more than three fleets only really kick-in once you are very large - like 300 or 400 I think.  You'll be fine until then. If you're making money, go for it and experiment.  These 3-fleet-type players just repeat the same thing every game and don't seem to have much fun, as far as I can tell.

When I play 'seriously' - as in really trying to do my best, I go for 6 or 7 types and am still usually in the top 4 or 5 airlines at the end of the game.  Once you go from 3  to 4, the penalties don't get that much worse, even when you're huge, so you may as well have 7!

[NZelenkova]

There's a reason why some low-cost carriers like the US Southwest stick to one aircraft type for their entire fleet. The more types you add, the more specialized your pilot, mechanic, and flight crew training needs to get. You also need to stock up on even more varieties of spare parts adding additional maintenance costs. You can get away with two or even three types in small amounts under the most right of circumstances but it's best to find a single type you can stick with for a couple of years while first starting out.

The only time I really start off with even two is when I have a great short haul domestic demand and a decent long haul demand. In those instances I might start out with two aircraft types (and no more) to serve their respective niche.

[knobbygb]

Yeah but that's in the real world, not this game. Here we start with worldwide totally untapped demand and all have to grab as big a chunk as soon as possible - just not realistic.  To just start with a single type, in my opinion, means you're leaving huge amounts of revenue untapped which your competitors will suck up. At the start of a game you need CASHFLOW and you need it NOW. Efficiency doesn't really matter. Most people just buy any old aircraft they can get their hands on (especially as the best ones soon become scarce). Better that you make a slightly smaller profit now than waiting years, or even decades until you can build a big but perfectly streamlined fleet.  Yes - have a masterplan and build towards it, but those overheads for lack of commonality are tiny compared to the money that is to be made at the start of the game.

[groundbum2]

I'll generally start a game with a total mishmash of types as we all fight over the slim pickings that is on the used market. But I did crash and burn once when my brand new airline had like 2 each of 3 types. The 100K/fleet/month proved too big an anchor. But after 6 game months when cash is coming in more fleet types is fine. But there must be a master plan to consolidate to 3 types once you get past 300 aircraft. And there's likely to be at least 1 fleet change after that somewhere, eg 767 -> 350 to get you to game end.

Simon