I like to think I have some experience in this game, having had successful airlines in past game worlds. Both with jets and turboprops. However, I keep struggling in the current MT game. I went belly up once because I leased a bunch of 777 right before fuel tripled. My bad. I got too eager.
So, I started over and now have about 20 ERJs and 5 ATRs. They are all profitable (all more than $100k profit). Load factors are high for passengers, high to medium for cargo. All leased, all not due for D-check. Staff set to auto. Fuel is market price because I'm not getting enough yet for a contract to make sense. I've cut back a bit on marketing compared to the graph I'm including, so should be about 6%.
Yet, I'm still losing money. I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing wrong. In past game worlds where I did essentially the same I've always been profitable. Is this game simply considerably harder than past ones?
Any help or advise would be appreciated.
I had a peek at your airline and nothing jumps out. You're not a big base sharing with a big competitor that has the squeeze on you. You're not flying an excessive number of different fleets. I would say your biggest impediment to profits growth is you are flying 2 medium type aircraft, with no business class and no standard cargo.
There was a recent note from a CEO discussing just this, that small airlines struggle against a huge wage bill. You say each aircraft makes 100K profit, but that excludes staff costs, and your airline has 1098 staff spread over 24 aircraft, so 25ish staff per aircraft! Those planes need to work hard to pay off the wage bill. And in the USA, where wages are high.
So really you're stuck in "ground effect". The way to grow is to move to A321/737 family equipment and start carrying business and standard cargo in larger planes longer distances. And on routes you dominate set fares to default + 30%. On a regular basis reset fares to default+4%, most people do this twice a game year. Consider joining an alliance so you can access more in-depth help, and access fuel price charts. We're at the top of fuel price now for a few more years.
https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,94805.0.html (https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,94805.0.html)
Good luck! Simon
Also, keep in mind that the current timing at MT is tough - high fuel and i think that the pricing is challenging so nobody is making a huge profit (just look at the margins).
I am not sure where your airline is based, but there are challenges for a regional airline flying small to medium sized aircraft from a medium sized airport in any game.
Demand does not usually support the need for bigger aircraft - except to major cities where there is usually already way too much competition, and the slot costs are huge. It seems that a small airline pays the same amount of money for a slot as do huge airlines - interestingly where in the real-world (unlike in this game) there are very few airports where airlines need to "purchase" slots at all.
Even with the new commonality improvements recently introduced, the cost of adding a new bigger type may kill a small airline.
Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I appreciate the help! The price management is something I've always been too cautious about, it seems. I increased my fares and it had no real impact on LF, but it did increase revenue. Also, decreasing my marketing costs has helped tremendously. I'm now at the profitability level where experience told me I should be.
I've been contemplating adding A321/B737 for a while, however they are incredibly hard to come by and incredibly expensive. There's simply so much demand! I'll keep my eyes open though.
Thank you again!