lord voldermort : quesions on jumping from beginners world

[groundbum2]

This was sent to me as a PM, but I figure it's better answered in a forum as we all have different experiences!

from :  lord voldemort

query
Sent to: groundbum2 on: Today at 07:47:41 AM

I'm sorry to disturb you but I had few questions. If possible , please help in answering those . i have played enough in beginners world and now i am ready for real world . My queries are :

1) At what airport should i start ?
2) Airline should be long haul , medium or short ?
3) How many fleets should be used ?
4) USA , EUROP OR ASIA WHICH IS EASIER FOR FIRST TIMERS ?
5) What precautions i should take ?
6) How different real game worlds are from beginners

[NZelenkova]

Honestly, I've had much better success basing off the beaten path than ever trying a busier place like the US or UK. I feel like operational costs are much higher in those places which can be detrimental to a less experienced player. As far as what kind of airline to run, that's up to you and your own ambitions. Ultra long haul is the highest risk for the highest reward but running a little regional turboprop line with high margins and low overhead can be a path to long term success.

The first successful game world long airline I had coming out of beginners world was actually based in Nigeria. Early on I ignored all the high competition long haul flights to Europe and instead ran my now favorite plane in the entire game the EMB-120 turboprop regionally. Profit margins were very good and eventually I opened another base or two as I determined the country had opportunities for such expansion. I was enjoying my modest success for a number of years before I suddenly realized I had quite a bit of money. In the last years of the game I started picking up MD-80s and jumping into the untapped mid-range African market as well as lesser European routes. That worked so well that I picked up a dozen or so L-1011s and finally broke into the three class 2000+NM market and really started raking in the cash. At that point, I don't know if I was actually making money of this but I was rich enough to buy a bunch of Fairchild Metros and connect all the little African airports with miniscule demand. By the end of it I had been invited to one of the more prestigious alliances.

I was a bit of a crazy person from the start running against the conventional wisdom of the community at the time. Don't base in Africa. Don't use Soviet planes. You'll never make it with just turboprops. I set out to prove all of that wrong and I succeeded in my first few scenarios.

My ultimate suggestion? Find a quiet corner of the globe with a good domestic market and take it slow. Don't be overly ambitious your first time out. Start out with one type of plane and focus on one market segment. Avoid the cut-throat competition until you've got some experience. Most of these scenarios are months and years long, so play the long game.

[WhiteYankeeBear]

Small planes provide much more control over your finances if you're just starting out. They're typically cheap, they can generate a ton of revenue, their maintenance cost isn't crazy, and it's easier to get them filled up and profitable. Once you generate some healthy profits from them, you could venture into larger aircraft while expanding your small aircraft fleet and routes. It all depends on what you want to get out of this game. If you want to have fun and run a nice airline, you can just as well stick to smaller aircraft. If you want to rule the world and conquer everyone, you'll have to go all in: bigger aircraft, lots of risk, waking up in the middle of the night to do stuff, etc.

[gazzz0x2z]

4 : Asia has nasty unbalanced demand and curfews. Scheduling is harder there, I would not recommand for a beginner. USA is good, but longer distances makes mistakes more costly. Europe is likely the easiest part to start from... assuming you're not going to a, airport where there is too much opposition.