How does an airline order and get 400 planes in 6 years? When I order I usually only get 1 or 2 a month.
How many different aircraft types were ordered? Let's assume the airline manages to get 3 per type per month. That makes it 648 aircrafts in 6 years for just 3 fleet types (no fleet type penalty).
Don't forget that when planes are widely available at the UM an airline can get them from there too to speed up. This could also work is the airline made a deal with other airlines to order planes for them which are then privately listed on the UM.
Fairly simple. Use your startup cash to rent planes. Use those planes to make money, order more planes with that money. Repeat vigorously until desired size is reached.
Quote from: [SC] - King Kong on January 04, 2017, 12:14:05 PM
Don't forget that when planes are widely available at the UM an airline can get them from there too to speed up. This could also work is the airline made a deal with other airlines to order planes for them which are then privately listed on the UM.
Private listing? Oh, I didnt know this type of thing was done. Has this been considered an unfair advantage or just good business?
Quote from: Andre090904 on January 04, 2017, 03:38:26 AM
How many different aircraft types were ordered? Let's assume the airline manages to get 3 per type per month. That makes it 648 aircrafts in 6 years for just 3 fleet types (no fleet type penalty).
This was just one type and as I said before when I order new planes I only get 1 or 2 a month so why would someone get 3? Even so, 3 a month for 6 years is 216. I have just learned of secret listings and planes being made available that way and am a little dismayed about it. I am in my second long term game and finally decided to ask how these mega carriers with less than 2/3 load factors build up their empires. I guess that is fun to them. I am unimpressed. My opinion.
It's not just mega airlines these listing benefit. Smaller airlines and smaller large airlines can use them effectively as well. You might talk to airline, negotiate a deal, normally bulk to buy or lease the planes off them at an agreed price.
Sometimes a useful technique for a smaller airline to buy the aircraft, another airline with better capital orders for you and sells you them when the arrive and when you need them. Allowing you in the meantime to build up cash to do so. Normally useful when the aircraft is in development.
Usually this kind of transaction is one of the many benefits of an alliance, as you can negotiate with an airline partner to get say 50 aircraft leased, but at better terms than in game brokers. And if you are a mega airline, you can use that alliance benefit to be able to replace huge fleets of aircraft much quicker than if you were left to your own devices.
Unfair advantage would come into it if the selling airline was making a loss, or that would be my opinion. In my experience people it's Cost Price or people are happy to pay a small increase to give the other airline a small profit.
I guess this practice being done within an alliance is considered good business.I have been playing for over 2 years and did not know this was going on. I enjoy playing the game, although a little less with these revelations That's fine my disapproval changes nothing.
Here are a few reasons why airline have a large number (400+) aircraft on order:
- You get a decent discount when you order 40+ aircraft at the time
- when buying very popular aircraft, the production line may fill up for 1-5 years of production. So you either have orders in the production line or you are our of luck for years
- When you place orders in the production line during the time period that is nearly empty (far in advance), your orders get compressed slightly better, so you may end up with 2-3 deliveries per month vs. placing orders in time of the production line is nearly fully booked, in which case you generally get 1 to 1.5 deliveries per month
Quote from: tdf42 on January 04, 2017, 11:38:22 PM
I guess this practice being done within an alliance is considered good business.I have been playing for over 2 years and did not no this was going on. I enjoy playing the game, although a little less with these revelations That's fine my disapproval changes nothing.
The only difference with private listings is that the two airlines have made a agreement to buy/sell to each other. All the other restrictions and rules of the UM are still in place. You don't have to be in an alliance to private list. You wont get A/C any faster than other players, so there really is no unfair practice going on.
In current GW, between January 2018 & Jauary 2020, I replaced 210 B737-300 by -700 just from the used market. The MAX7 I had ordered at the same(something like 30 of them) time just were used for new routes. So, for one single fleet group, 240 birds(30 new, 210 used) within 24 months.
I usually don't go that fast, but I needed to clean the old fleet group to welcome my new 777s in February 2020. As Schro says, the only thing you need is enough profit to finance it. I had enough cash for that, but earlier in the game, you lease for the most juicy routes. The way you choose your first routes for immediate profit - and therefore immediate growth - is really strategical. I'm not at the level of the best for that, but I'm getting better each game.