Opening Routes | AirwaySim Documentation

This chapter providers some additional insights to routes and what affects them. All the basics on how to plan, open and schedule a new route are covered in the Getting Started chapters.

Basic rules in gaining passengers

There are various aspects in route planning you must take into consideration before and while opening a route. Some useful things to know are:

Company Image (CI)

This is an important factor but the utmost thing is to make sure the Image is not negative. CI measures the overall brand knowledge of your company and affects all of your routes. Marketing efforts raise the image, but negative news such as excessive flight delays or aircraft incidents will reduce the brand.
If you are a small regional operator with limited competition from the large global carriers a CI of 20-40 points is enough. If you are a large mainline carrier flying globally a score of 80+ points should be desirable.
If your CI is negative, passengers will avoid your company.

Route Image (RI)

This is specific to certain route-pairs (airport to airport). It measures how well the public know that your company operates this route.
When you start a new route-pair the RI is 0 and rises slowly towards 100pts level (which is the maximum). Once the RI reaches 100 it stays there as long as the route is frequently flown (= no player micromanagement needed).
Expect low sales when a route is new.

Ticket prices

Ticket prices directly affect sales. However, passengers in different travel classes have different levels of price sensitivity - business & first class (C & F) passengers are less affected by discounted prices.
When creating a route, the system suggests a default price. The prices are based on route type, length, game year, inflation etc. They are usually a good baseline and represent a value what passengers are willing to pay if service is optimal. If you fly with poor aircraft, have poor company image or poor service levels you may have to reduce prices to increase sales (but remember that this may hurt your profits - try to find the sweet spot where earnings are the biggest, do not just try to fill out the plane to 100% Load Factor at any cost!).
Remember also that if you increase the prices too much, passengers will take other means of transportation or just not fly at all. The suggested prices and shown passenger demand levels are only estimates and are valid in a case where the service level is near-perfect.

Flight departure / arrival times & flight length

The departure and arrival times (time of day) greatly affect route sales. Most passengers want to depart during the day instead of the middle of the night. Also, business traveler peak hours are early morning and afternoon/evening hours. Generally all departures between 05.00/06.00 - 23.00/23.30 are fine. Ideally the flight should also land between the same hours (or a bit later in the evening). Longhaul passengers are a little less picky on the operation hours than people flying short distances. Long flights through the night are acceptable, as long as the passengers are not made to walk around the airport at 3am.
Length of the flight also has a direct relationship to route sales. Aircraft speed can be a significant factor. Faster flight time equals better sales but only up to a point. For example, if a slow turboprop takes 3 hours to fly a route but a jet takes only 2 hours (and ticket price is the same), the faster jet service is more desirable.
Technical stopovers also increase the journey duration (and also add an extra uncomfortable landing/takeoff) and have an effect on sales.
Also, be aware of your scheduling. For example, 2 flights departing too close to each other is not ideal.
- It is always recommended to fly at the peak hours (morning and early evening).
- In practice each of your flights must depart at least 60 minutes apart, otherwise (for calculation) purposes the system counts them as a single flight.
- For routes with a very large demand, you should distribute the flights evenly throughout the day. But remember to keep at least 10-40 minutes between each departure (the busier the route the closer the departures can be).

Frequency

The flight regularity or frequency has a relevance on a weekly and on a daily level. For weekly frequency the "minimum service level" depends on the route type. Domestic and shorthaul sectors should be served at least 7 times a week while longhaul routes may be served with less frequency.
Daily flight frequency was partly covered above in the flight times chapter. Passengers appreciate choice so they like different departure times to choose from.
It is advisable to offer services at various times of the day if passenger demand makes this economical.
However, when exceeding the maximum beneficial daily frequency you will receive no advantage by adding more flights.
In practice, if you have a route with an estimated demand of less than 50 daily passengers it is advisable to fly it only 1-3 times a day, and for a route with 250 passengers no more than 5-7 times daily. For busier routes the frequency "allowed" raises accordingly.

Aircraft type, condition and age

The general condition and average age of your aircraft fleet (companywide) has an effect on all route sales. If your fleet is aged or in bad condition the public will see your airline as an unreliable choice.
For individual routes the aircraft type has also a minor effect. Passengers see different aircraft types in a different way, and generally modern Western jet aircraft are seen as the "most reliable and comfortable" by the general travelling public, while very small propeller aircraft may scare some passengers.

Onboard service and comfort

The type of seats installed to the aircraft affects the passenger's willingness to travel the airline. More details in Seating configuration chapter.

Alliances and "home field advantage"

Being a member of an alliance has a small benefit depending on the rating of the alliance (read more from Alliances chapter).
Local airlines also have a small advantage over foreign / "out of town" carriers.