Where are all the small commercial aircraft?

[Mike Swaledale]

I've recently started the game and I am really enjoying it. But one puzzlement is that there seem to be so few small commercial aircraft types.  I've started an  airline in the 1950s period but the only small commercial aircraft I have seen are the DH dragon/dove and heron - for example I couldn't find any second hand  Lockheed 18s which would have a small payload but a decent range. I have another in the ultra modern period and the only thing I can find smaller than an Embraer Brasilia is a Pilatus PC12, no cessna caravans or Beech 99s.  Are the small aircraft there but just all snapped up, or is there a gap?

[Verto]

Small aircraft are great, but truthfully in this game below 30 seats you will be a constant struggle to make profits.

So a lot of times the production lines get shut down because anyone who flies them can't actually afford to fly them.

[Mike Swaledale]

Thanks for the reply Verto. That would certainly explain the lack of aircraft in this class in the later years, and maybe why only the most economical (e.g. the DH models) are in the early game.

[MikeS]

Yup, those DH Dove & Herons are very profitable, at least so far in the early days in GW1 (>30% profit margin). After that the Beechcraft look quite promising. 

[Cardinal]

The Fairchild Metro is also a good small plane. I built a Caribbean island-hopping empire with them a few years ago. The early models show up the the 1970s, the final model in the late 1980s. Due to the era you won't see it in the Beginner's world.