Small Airline Operations - Asking Again

[vectorforfood]

Can we somehow please fix the staffing issue for small operations?

Trying to sim a small airline operation, and I have a fleet of SEVEN airplanes, Caravans, and somehow the game thinks I need 250 staff to run this?

It's wild.

In the real world, yes the 13 pilots are required for sure, but in reality I would at max have a staff of 60 others for an airline this size? How do I get admin attention to resolve this?

[knobbygb]

I don't think you'll get this changed. It's always been like that and has been discussed for years.

For what it's worth, the whole staffing system is broken, even for larger airlines and aircraft. It's just that, with a large airline you don't notice it so much and can absorb the hit.  For example, Every time I add a 737 I have to hire around 120 new staff, on average. Around 50 of those are 'office staff' too, which is ridiculous. There's no economy of scale. Yes, I understand aircrew not having that scaling - a fixed number are required per aircraft, but not for other functions.

But, to be fair, and for balance... remember the game is programmed that EVERY SINGLE PERSON who comes into contact with your operation has to be a direct employee. There's no such thing as a Handling Agent (which are a massive part of the industry in real life) or contract maintenance etc. So for every destination you fly to (which is probably quite a few small airports in your case), you will have to employ staff at the remote airport to handle the flight.  Even if you just fly once per day with 10 or 15 pax. You still need those people on full time salaries.  That never happens in the real world, because it would never work - as you are discovering.

As an aside, I live on a small Greek island where, in the winter, there are three or four ATR flights per day from different airlines.  The same staff at the airport handle all the flights - ticketing, customer service, check in, boarding, marshalling, ramp handling, baggage etc. This is the only way it could ever be economically viable. Even more notable - the same people handle many functions, so the person selling tickets also helps with check-in and then is at the gate for boarding and is the person you go to if you have missing baggage on arrival. The person dealing with the baggage loading also handles the dispatch paperwork etc.  Security is handled by the airport directly (through the local police station - a bored looking cop arrives an hour before each flight). As far as I can see, there are about SEVEN staff at the airport that are directly involved in handling all four flights, with a few extras to cover days off and sickness I guess and they are all employed by the same handling agency (most on seasonal short-term contracts). So that averages to just over 2 full time salaries per weekly flight. Even if you round that to 3 it is still WAY LOWER than the game numbers.

I don't know what the answer is. The game should probably have handling agent and maintenance contracts which you can negotiate at variable prices - rather like how the fuel system works.