1) minimize the number of different aircraft families (keep to 1-2 families in the first few months)

    each additional family adds huge maintenance costs that are uneconomical if you only have 1-2 aircraft in the family

2) maximize flight hours (aircraft utilization), especially in the startup phase



3) spend cash to lease more aircraft and grow your revenue as quickly as possible





After cash reaches $5 million,
1. Lease used aircraft until $15-20 million
2. Lease new aircraft until $25-30 million
3. Buy used aircraft until $150-200 million
4. Buy new aircraft

Focus on nothing but profit until I understand the game. Forget ethics, these aren't even real people at stake here.





New airline in a new world:

    Make sure every plane is flying fully loaded and to maximum hours as soon as it is delivered. This is key above all else.
    Take out a couple of $5m bonds (or 1 $5m and 1 smaller bond) to give funds to lease new planes. Do not take out too many bonds though or else your credit rating becomes so bad that you cannot lease more planes even when profitable.
    Lease multiple aircraft types from multiple families. Start with 3 families, and look to expand early. This will give much faster deliveries than leasing just a single family of planes.
    When ordering the first plane of a new plane family time delivery to the start of a month. This times in best with how maintenance is charged
    Check how much cash is needed for bonds, staff, gates etc and when these are due. Any excess cash should be spent on new leases, but bonds etc do need to be paid.
    Avoid other airlines (but don't be a pushover). If other airlines all fly long haul then fly short haul.
    If desperate, increase prices where there is no competition.
    If desperate\mean, ignore inflight entertainment and services.
    Reduce salaries and spare staff to 5% and accept a slightly higher staff turnover.
    Avoid the largest airports and operate out of the medium sized airports with lower gate fees.
    Forget all about owning planes for the first year.


New airline in an old world:

    Much as above
    Look for old but useful planes that can be leased relatively cheaply (instead of new planes). For example O2 has had lots of planes being replaced at 6-9 years old, with the old planes entering the used pool at an age when they are still very useful.
    REALLY avoid other airlines.





Never focus on one airport, I usually have around 9 gates at 4 airports, not 36 at 1. A specific type of airline "gozilla"-airlines can easily destroy your base but I don't recommend this type.




Mobeer's post is the most informative one.

If you want to have a top 10 airline by year 2 then you have to expand early and often and that means leasing more than 1 or 2 aircraft models after the first month or two.
By the 4th quarter of the first year you should be leasing at least 6 or 7 different models if you want to be in the big boys club.
I waited till the 1st quarter of the second year before I was leasing everything Airbus and Boeing made which was a couple months too late because my 2 biggest competitors where already doing it.
There #1 and #2 now in R6.
I wish this game was set up so that it rewarded players who ran an efficient airline with 3 or 4 models of aircraft and ordered LOTS of them.
But all that garauntees is that you will have an efficient SMALL airline.

I also started buying instead of leasing a lot of my aircraft (starting with the smaller ones) by the 4th quarter.
By then my airline was very profitable and I could afford it but I'm still not sure how much of an advantage that gives you beyond the obvious one of not paying for that lease.
Is leasing so costly that you are much better off buying when you can afford it?




Go for empty routes ONLY.
If you can't find some, then don't expand.

If you *do* want to expand, do it carefully and nicely towards others.
They've been there first, after all, and they might as well be bigger and financially better off than you are.




Stay right away from Concorde, only 160 seats and just over 3000 mile range with full pax (up to 4000 with less) along with a million dollar monthly lease or $350 000 000 buying price as well as sky high fuel and maintenence costs. With all of this the DOP you will earn will not be worth the rest of the expenses. Why Concorde was so popular in real life; Supersonic aircraft reaching speeds of over 1000 miles per hour and being able to fly from USA to France or England in around three hours was once in a lifetime, everyone wanted to fly with it. In AE the pax are simulated and don't care one bit what they fly on.





Don't rule out any route.




Suggest waiting until your growth and finances are stable before considering IFE. Implement IFS ASAP.





0-25 Aircraft:

    Lease aircraft as many as you can as quickly as you can.
    Make sure these aircraft are of a maximum of 2 types.
    Go for fuel efficient aircraft.
    Try to keep to short haul.
    Keep your destinations low as gates cost money.
    Be a max $10mil in debt.
    Get in an Alliance.

25-80 Aircraft:

    Add in Medium haul.
    Try to keep to a maximum of 4 types (2 for short haul and 2 for medium haul).
    Try to keep your airline structured as it makes it much easier to phase in and out aircraft when you are big, it also makes your airline more efficient.
    You may want to start some long haul but only use 1 aircraft type.
    Use Marketing.

80-150 Aircraft:

    Try to keep to a maximum of 6-7 Aircraft types, With a minimum of 10 of each type.
    On some routes, go into debt to remove competition. Not too many though and make sure you make the competition go into debt too on these routes.
    Add in IFE and IFS.
    Build Terminals and hub.
    Try and keep a steady flow of aircraft so you can time your logins to when the aircraft arrive.

150+:

    If you want start buying Aircraft.
    Maintain routes.
    Plan your airline for the future (workout what aircraft you are going to replace and when and with what aircraft).




Don't touch anything under 19 seats.






When you first started, before doing anything, take 2x5,000,000 bonds, it will help you get started.

 If the used market is empty, take several type of aircraft, the maintenance cost may be huge in the beginning, but it will pays off.

If there are a lot of used aircrafts in the market, lease the oldest one, one type only, build your fleet in this type, my favorite: A320, A330, B777, B747,

If the world just started, deploy one aircraft to several routes, not only one, usually 1x on empty route, maxed on the price, monopoly make money, shouldn't it.

If the world already crowded, get the biggest oldest cheapest VLA from the market, and concentrate on trunk routes.

Last, be flexible to reroute your aircraft if current route doesn't earn you a decent profit.








1 - take the smallest cheapest starting plane available

2 - cancel the lease

3 - lease several old planes from the used pool.





Before that, starting plane is any choice and home airport can be primary OR secondary.

1.Start your IFS.

2. Put the choices of breakfast, lunch and dinner the worst price and charge it the highest price (breakfast $50, lunch and dinner $75)

3. Put all the snacks on the best price and charge it free.

4. Go to step 2 and tick all. Leave all price free.

5. Now the profit is around $401 and the rating is considerate.

6.Name the IFS and use it in every single flight.

7. The IFS will be a boost in fact.

8. Buy a plane no more than $15,000,000 (in world S4) or $3,000,000(in other world)

OR

8. Lease a plane no more than $600,000(in world S4) or $350,000(in other world)

9. Open routes that have less than 15-35% of people occupied (already opened the route) It is best to find one that you are the first to open.

10. Add FEW planes FIRST, before YOU spend on NON-profiting flights. You can ALWAYS add later, rather than WASTE on money first.

11. If you want a better profit, use the IFS and configure a seating plan.

12. Don't go below $3,000,000 if possible.

13. If you want to share an airline with another, make sure you BE CAREFUL

14. Lease Gates around $10,000 to $200,000 only.

15. Do the last few steps several times until your daily profit is around $650,000 and above.

16.Check on finance, and leased planes and gates.

17. Do the steps from 8 again and again, until you have at least $45,000,000 (other world) or $110,000,000 (world S4)

18. Now buy planes no more than $35,000,000 (world S4) or $15,000,000 (other world)

OR

18. Lease planes no more than $950,000 (world S4) or $550,000(other world)

19.Repeat the steps from 9-12 always and from step 18.

20. Keep this up for long term, until daily profits are at least $12,000,000.

21. Until your money is average $175,000,000 in other world or $260,000,000 in world S4 keep dong steps 19-20.

22. If your money has reached the limit in step 21, build a terminal. (If you have not been able to have any more gates, do not follow step 20.)

23. Now start buying planes instead of leasing, for the whole experience is enough to train your money handling.

24. Keep this up, and you'll have a great airline.

25. Plus, now you can configure your IFE and make or join alliances and compete for the ranking.