Correcting mistakes

[stattohogg2020]

What are peoples best strategies for minimising the damage of costly mistakes - like ordering planes you can't fill or are unprofitable?!

[NZelenkova]

It's a cut-throat business and unfortunately we can't sell our assets to competitors when we make mistakes. If you are able to eat the mistake and cut those routes or planes without going deep in the red, I say hang in there. My first airline to survive an entire game very nearly collapsed before I figured out the right price adjustments. If you've picked the wrong plane and can't eat the cost of cutting that type loose it might be over. If you tried to compete with someone and they just have you're number, it might be time for a tactical retreat. If you look at the history of airlines, so many have come and gone, some of them in very short order. It really stinks after the amount of time that might have passed in a game like this but when you can't find a way out, sometimes the BK startover is all you can do. Now, in the event you were very successful for a time before things got hard, if you own enough planes you can mortgage them for a big cash infusion. I did that once and lived to tell of it but again it comes down to can you make it work financially. When you are doomed, you're doomed. We don't get government bailouts here. If you own the planes you can't use, there's nothing wrong with storing them, scrapping them (if eligible), or trying to lease them to someone else.

[stattohogg2020]

Thanks for your reply. First mistake was trying b377's where demand wasn't high enough, and the staff and maintenance costs per unit were too high. Cut them and reduced the outflow.

Then I got excited about jets and ordered the s***ty dc-8's with no range and can't half fill them.

Considering one of your strategies of mortgaging the ones I own and ditching the leases at a cost of 4m a piece. 

[stattohogg2020]

On a good week I'm cash positive - so difficult to tell to what extent I'm circling the drain

[NZelenkova]

If you have positive cash flow at all that's a very good sign. I just recently decided to take the big risk of taking my tiny regional airline into the longer haul market. I'm currently in the red financially by a small amount but so far this week I'm $157 in the black. Route image on the new routes is still below 50 so if I'm already getting the hint of profit I believe my risk will pay off. Unless you are dealing with massive unserved demand things are going to progress very slowly. The best advice I can give if you aren't a seasoned mega airline player is that speed kills and patience is a virtue. Take it slow because expanding too fast can easily run up too much debt before you start running a profit.