Why is the Viscount 700D so popular in Airway Sim??
Why do Sim airlines continue to use it well into the jet age - well beyond what real world airlines did?
The 700D has a crew of 3 & 2 vs 2 & 1 for the F-27.
It uses more fuel: 2.094 lbs vs 1.609 lbs. It needs a longer runway.
Granted, it can fly farther, but why does it seem to be such a good deal for the airlines that use it into the jet age? How can they make more money than airlines using the F27
It's been a few (real time) years since I've used them, but my memory is that there were simply LOADS of them available very cheaply whereas the production queue for F.27s was quite full. It allowed fast expansion with low risk. This was even more important when fleet-commonality was such a big thing - once you had a couple of hundred Viscounts, it could be quite time consuming changing to something else.
As you say, the extra range was useful too. At that point in the game you should already be thinking ahead to what these aircraft will be replaced by and thus what sort of routes of that range you should even be bothering opening (i.e. will you be able to serve them long term). I seem to remember going directly from Viscounts to the Fokker 50 but, as I say, it was a while ago.
I use the F-27 because as you noted, the V700 will have to be replaced at some point either because of age or noise certification. The F-27 and the F-0 also have the same type rating and fit right into the F 27 schedules.
Good luck to the V700 users when it comes to replacing them; however, it is frustrating that I was once bankrupted because (among other things) a competitor entered my market with a slew of V700s.
As Knobby explained there are alot available and cheaply including large fleets need to be replaced with a 3 fleet rule(before) you could not simply add an extra fleet as the 4th fleet goth heavy penalties.
The answer is economics where capacity vs costs have to see which operates cheaper.
Now with new game rules have to see how it goes and it seems with alot available still airliners use them to grow or start up.
Also in real life alot of them went to airliners with a smaller budget or in countries where revenue is lower.
This game is not different from real life,just look further than only Midway in HaF game.