Fleet types

[carrisi]

I have heard something about a maximum number of fleet types...?

Obviously there are fixed costs for each fleet type, but is there something more penalising lurking??? I heard something about "large airlines" getting penalised? I havent heard about any "penalty" for being a large airline with multiple fleet types before....

Can anyone help?

[gazzz0x2z]

there is a penalty that strikes all fleet groups.

if you are below 75 airframes in your company, it strikes as soon as you fly 3 different fleet types. Above, it's 4 fleet types. (the limit has been mesured beteen 69 and 75 airframes. I'm using 75 as a reference for safety, even if I did personally measure 72 in GW2).

And the killer detail : the more airframes you have, the harsher the penalty. It's annoying at 200 airframes, penalizing at 300 airframes, punitive at 400..... and will kill you quickly at 600 airframes. It's even worse with fleet types whose maintenance costs are basically high(it seems linked). Which means plenty of otherwise well-managed airlines kill themselves by sheer growth : they have 4 fleet group, and they are profitable, so they grow, and profit slows down, until it completely stops, and they lack the financial health for a restructuration.

EDIT : just had a look at your company in GW1. 312 airframes, 9 fleet types. You begin to be penalized. Still 25% margin, that's impressive. If you want to grow bigger, you'll have to rationalize all that. As you seem very strong on other topics, you have plenty of time for that.

[tyteen4a03]

Note that the fleet commality costs seem to have gone down in this GW1 - happily flying 4 fleets with about 10% increase in costs but still very manageable. In the old GW4 flying 4 fleet quickly killed off any profit I had.

[Tha_Ape]

Note that the fleet commality costs seem to have gone down in this GW1 - happily flying 4 fleets with about 10% increase in costs but still very manageable. In the old GW4 flying 4 fleet quickly killed off any profit I had.

Even with a large total fleet size? How many frames are you at?

[tyteen4a03]

Even with a large total fleet size? How many frames are you at?

I'm at 160 right now, had about 200 - 250 in GW4 when I was 4 fleet.

[Tha_Ape]

Ok, under 200 that's still pretty manageable, as Gazzz stated. Thanks for the answer. And if you go above 400, please tell me what's the effect.
In current GW#2, going to 4 fleets at 600 planes (750 counted during the renewal) just put me at 0 operational profit while I was at 17% margin before (not counting lease income).

[carrisi]

HasSammi written this is the manual?

[Tha_Ape]

Nope. This the experience book.
Well, he did write something about limiting ourselves to 3 fleet types, but that all. Very vague. But that's how the game is made, only basic stuff are said and the exact recipe remains unknown even to the most experienced players (and I'm not one of those).

[gazzz0x2z]

And it also seems to be harsher in the late eras than in the early eras - but that's just a smell, not an accurate measurement.

[SP7]

In GW3 going to 4 fleets at ~540 frames raises my commonality cost by 5x for all of my existing fleets, an additional ~$130M per month.


That's actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

[tyteen4a03]

Returning to this discussion, right now I'm in the process of switching my DC-8s and DC-10 to A306s, about 150 total. Three sets have been converted.

(I also converted a bunch of 863s to 873s during this time so maintenance costs may seem unnaturally high)







My profits have dropped by about 30%, which is manageable at this stage.