query

[lord voldemort]

Hello ! recently i was running an airline in modern game world with about 1000 + planes . Problem was that it was taking too much of time in managing things .  i had almost 50+ planes unscheduled with another 150 on order . So after trying few experiments , i decided to close the airline . So i need tips to manage such huge airline in future with less efforts . any suggestions ?

[NZelenkova]

I don't think I've ever exceeded 200 aircraft. The reason I don't is I'll never have that much time to devote to this game as much as I've loved it for the last decade. If you aren't going to check on things constantly it might be better to try and be the most profitable airline instead of the largest for example. I personally rarely play to be the best, I usually want to prove a challenging concept and just survive. When I started out people said never use Soviet planes and never fly small turboprops. I helped prove both wrong and that was good enough for me. If you want to be one of the elite flying everywhere and making billions you need to spend a lot of time micromanaging.

[groundbum2]

it' definitely true running a large airline takes more time, but the trick to keeping it manageable is getting it right in the first place. By this I mean scheduling planes efficiently onto routes that make money, using 7 day schedules where it makes sense. Do this, and you never need to revisit old routes, just increases prices every so often. Then the CEO job is just adding new routes, and buying new aircraft to replace the old ones 1 for 1.

It's only experience and getting it wrong that teaches you the art of scheduling, especially someplace like EGLL with the curfew and limited slots.

Simon

[lord voldemort]

it' definitely true running a large airline takes more time, but the trick to keeping it manageable is getting it right in the first place. By this I mean scheduling planes efficiently onto routes that make money, using 7 day schedules where it makes sense. Do this, and you never need to revisit old routes, just increases prices every so often. Then the CEO job is just adding new routes, and buying new aircraft to replace the old ones 1 for 1.

It's only experience and getting it wrong that teaches you the art of scheduling, especially someplace like EGLL with the curfew and limited slots.

Simon

You summed it up well . I had to devote so much time since i was handling so many fleet types. eventually i lost having fun .  Also i think another major mistakes i made were :

1) Using price increment - What is right time to do that ?
2) Fleet type : i tried using premium economy and premium business class for long routes.. but felt no advantage.. so  what fleet type should be used ?

[groundbum2]

1) price increases. I just do 2% a year for pax, and perhaps every 2% every 2 years for cargo. I always see a big drop for cargo when I axross the board all fares add 2%, but the volume returns after a while.

2) I just use standard seats on EVERY plane. One thing with a big airline is you can't micromanage so every A330-300 has the same seat config pretty much, you can't fiddle with seats on a per route basis. Once you start swapping planes around it goes out the window!

[lord voldemort]

1) price increases. I just do 2% a year for pax, and perhaps every 2% every 2 years for cargo. I always see a big drop for cargo when I axross the board all fares add 2%, but the volume returns after a while.

2) I just use standard seats on EVERY plane. One thing with a big airline is you can't micromanage so every A330-300 has the same seat config pretty much, you can't fiddle with seats on a per route basis. Once you start swapping planes around it goes out the window!

Ok. So that means premium economy does not hold much advantage in terms of load factor. Right ? So High density seats also won't be punished ? In real situation, this affects very much.

[schro]

Ok. So that means premium economy does not hold much advantage in terms of load factor. Right ? So High density seats also won't be punished ? In real situation, this affects very much.

High density seats matter more the longer the flight is.

[eleytheria]

High density seats matter more the longer the flight is.

Wait, are you saying that you have HD on LH?

[schro]

Wait, are you saying that you have HD on LH?

No, the longer the flight the more negative impact having HD seats is.

As an example, an hour long flight may make no difference in seats sold, but a 5 hour flight is you might lose half your tickets sold.

Note I have not directly tested the impact, so those are hypothetical numbers, but it is how it has been explained here in the forums over the years.

[eleytheria]

Oh I see, I misread your previous message

[NZelenkova]

You summed it up well . I had to devote so much time since i was handling so many fleet types. eventually i lost having fun .  Also i think another major mistakes i made were :

1) Using price increment - What is right time to do that ?
2) Fleet type : i tried using premium economy and premium business class for long routes.. but felt no advantage.. so  what fleet type should be used ?

That was my first ever catastrophic newbie mistake that almost ruined my 150+ aircraft all-Soviet domestic line back we did more thirty year scenarios. Everything was chugging along for decades then suddenly I was on the verge of bankruptcy. The reason? It was like 1985 and we hadn't changed prices since 1970. I fixed that and we made it to the end while successfully replacing our aging aircraft. I generally reset prices to default periodically, especially if I haven't logged in for a week, as that will at least bring you to a market average.

[Kadachiman]

Price increases my go to - reset to default and then increase pricing to match Company Image e.g. if CI = 80% then I raise prices by 8% across the board (after I have done a reset to default)

Seating my go to
- keep all seats above approx. 400-500NM to standard seating in all classes as there appears to be no advantage in selecting premium seating
- below 400-500NM route its ok to use High density seating unless you have stiff competition on that route

This may not be the most effective way to go as far as profits go, but it is efficient when you take into account the simplicity vs time spent when managing 150+ planes

[NZelenkova]

I have used premium seating but only when I'm pushing turboprops to their absolute limits and pax numbers are restricted. If the plane has to be half full anyway and you are subjecting people to say four hours in an An-24 they might as well have comfortable seats.