It's obvious that if you don't get in within the first few months of a game, your chances are poor. Starting to realize THIS games flaws. It seems all these SIM games have their own issues with programing and realistic parameters. This one seems to be the best so far but it needs tuning for sure.
That's complete bull, you can start a new airline in the middle of the sim and still become a top airline!
It's all down to how YOU play and YOUR decisions in the game how successful your airline is.
Don't blame the game for you not cutting it, the beginner's worlds are there for a good reason, and looking at how you just started playing this game i really don't see how you have anything to complain about...
Games restarts every few months...
Well, if you start in the middle of a game, you have to be careful to well choose your starting airport. If you choose a popular airport in slot drought, or with all good lines already served, you're not in a good position, indeed. But there are always company failures(or healthy players who give up, for reasons), and in any given game, there are always a few good spots to settle down.
Trouble begins if you want to play exactly at one airport. "I live in Prague!!! I shal play in Prague!!!" and Prague is filled by two excellent players who took all the breathing space. Then, only then, you're screwed. But if at the same time Budapest is not cutthroat, why not play there?
Exactly...another thing to look at is specialization. Your opponent is focussing on longhaul only? Why not go regional? Or vice versa. Given the airport has the demand of course...
An alliance mate joined last gw2 (which started 1960) in the 1980's and got the highest score in the end. Impossible you said? You need to research a lot and make a good decision. It's all up to you. I joined last gw2 also 5 years late and was based in Chania (Greece). That was a really small airport back then and the demand was limited to 100 on the biggest (!) routes. Yet with the Open Skies agreement I had 10 bases in the end and 800+ aircrafts. With a HQ in the middle of nowhere! Don't say it's impossible...
As Andre said, I started the last GW2 23 years after it began, and ending up winning the score race (by a long way). It's not impossible at all.
What is true, is there is a period of time where starting a new airline is difficult. That time is from the gw-start, through the first decade. That is because to start a new airline successfully you need a supply of cheap, last generation planes off the used market, and for the first decade, these planes don't exist.
In the current gameworld 2, in the near future people will start moving to the first generation jets, and combined with the productions lines which have been active for 10 years, the availability of DC-4s, Connies, DC6s etc will start to increase. These planes will still be good workhorses able to make good money, and provide a good stop gap to the second generation jets.
I cant predict exactly when that will be. But I do believe it will be in the next 2-3 game world years. I'd go further, and say that the early 60s would be a really good time to join the game in this capacity. With good availability of planes, high slots, high pax demand, low fuel (all conditions that will exist), it's a great opportunity to grow a big airline quickly (and far quicker than anyone has managed in the 50s, due to lack of planes).
In 1960s starts, the waters are muddied by the 1973 fuel increase. That isn't a worry or concern in this world for potential new airlines.
In addition to what's been said, it's worth noting that you get a Route Image Bonus when you start late in the Game world to your first few routes to help you start off. I think the is a small CI one as well from memory. It's definitely possible and once the Gameworld has got well underway to be able to join late and make a really good airline before the end.
I started late my previous GW, looking for a big empty airport. Back then that was Montreal. In this GW it will be Moscow SVO soon.
Yearofthecactus, sir, to us mere mortals, summed up in a couple of sentences, to what is the key to your success.
I forgot another detail - you don't play exactly the same way when you are a poor newcomer, than when you are a wealthy established company. Let's imagine year is 2010, and you need a lot of regional jets. If you are full of cash, the choice is obvious : Ejets. The best things money can buy in the category. But you need the money.
If you are a cash-depriven beginning company, aiming for cheaper airframes is mandatory. You can't buy, and leasing brand new Ejets would simply kill you. You could go to old airframes(like the F70/100), probably leasable for a good price, or even take brand new cheap airframes. I was very successful with A148/158 twice in this era(ending up with 600 of them). ARJ21s, J928s, are also usually cheap solutions in the era, with each one its own qualities and drawbacks. They are all inferior to Ejets.....until you count the cost of owning. A brand new A148A may cost 15M$, something like 30% the price of a similar Ejets. Of course, it drinks a little bit more, and maintenance costs are doubled. Still, by leasing cheap, you can quickly grow up your company. Until you have to consolidate, but that's a rich man's problem, one that is good to have.