200 replies to this topic

[Avelo]

What's 5/20?

A regulation in the Indian aviation market that requires new airlines to operate domestically for five years and have a minimum of 20 planes in order to expand internationally.

[Marb1]

A regulation in the Indian aviation market that requires new airlines to operate domestically for five years and have a minimum of 20 planes in order to expand internationally.

Cool, I didn't know that! 

[Avelo]

Cool, I didn't know that!

In fact, applying that rule helped my airline become profitable enough to open more hubs and order widebodies in future years without incurring losses.

[HanTseng]

Before the whole thread gets off-topic, another hard country I've experienced that is hard to operate out of is New Zealand.

 

Firstly it's very isolated, like very very isolated, the only big market you can serve with narrowbodies is Australia. Secondly, if you were to serve anywhere else, the demand is there but it's not that high, around 300-400 daily passengers for major cities and 100-200 for secondary cities, which isn't huge. Lastly, if you have a competitor in the domestic market, be prepared to make losses and go on price wars. 

 

Agree! Now running Air New Zealand and found out most of the Australian and domestic routes are under competition from spamming, and Asian destinations have very low demand out of AKL.

[kingoftheskies]

Agree! Now running Air New Zealand and found out most of the Australian and domestic routes are under competition from spamming, and Asian destinations have very low demand out of AKL.

 

I had a period of time where I was competing with another NZ player, and also against 2 Australian carriers, I was losing $$ on most of the transtasman routes. 

[Infestation]

Rwanda sucks

[Avelo]

Try India domestically. I bet most players who start in that country focus on flying internationally to big-name destinations like BKK, DXB, and HKG while neglecting otherwise popular domestic network, as is the case with Rα. In fact, I even have a near-monopoly on the Indian domestic market there

[ሴትዉሻ]

French Polynesia.

[Whirligig]

Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City. Why? 

 

Because none of these countries have airports.

[NotSureWhatToUse]

North Korea I believe. I heard few people try it, good luck making a profit

[Marb1]

North Korea I believe. I heard few people try it, good luck making a profit

[AHHC ▲☺▲]

North Korea

[Marb1]

North Korea

[AirOrlando]

I've been trying to make Bahamasair work. I've made a little niche into the market, but I'm constantly losing money. So, the Bahamas (or really anywhere in the Caribbean) is a pretty hard area to work out of.

[Pasti]

Any part of the Caribbean owned by a European country.

 

Airports don't have much demand, are far away from big airports, and any other airline from the mainland country can easily set up shot and ruin what you have going on.

[Jarkii]

Isn't Greenland the obvious first?

[Avelo]

Any part of the Caribbean owned by a European country.

Airports don't have much demand, are far away from big airports, and any other airline from the mainland country can easily set up shot and ruin what you have going on.

Then why does Air Caraibes still fly?

[Nikki Takeya]

No.

The hardest country to start with is Monaco, that micronation surrounded by France - it had only one helipad with about 200k traffic each year, and plus, it's not an European Union member, so it's not in the open sky agreement of EU. You can't fly in EU routes, and you really can't fly anywhere because the range of helicopters are limited. 

You can fly probably only to Nice, maybe Marseille and Milan also, but that's it.

It's likely the only country without an actrual proper airport that you can play with in AE - you can't startup in San Marino or Vatican, because they don't even have a helipad.

[Avelo]

No.
The hardest country to start with is Monaco, that micronation surrounded by France - it had only one helipad with about 200k traffic each year, and plus, it's not an European Union member, so it's not in the open sky agreement of EU. You can't fly in EU routes, and you really can't fly anywhere because the range of helicopters are limited.
You can fly probably only to Nice, maybe Marseille and Milan also, but that's it.
It's likely the only country without an actrual proper airport that you can play with in AE - you can't startup in San Marino or Vatican, because they don't even have a helipad.

Nobody would even be willing to fly in helicopters anyway, so they're virtually useless in AE.

[Nikki Takeya]

Nobody would even be willing to fly in helicopters anyway, so they're virtually useless in AE.

yep.

But technically, you can open an airline operating in Monaco, and use helicopters.

So it's the hardest.