41 replies to this topic

[firecomet]

I think some really underappreciated airports that I find are in Asia are Jeju and Naha (Japan and South Korea). Like in one of my worlds I own about 10% of the service @ Naha with just 1.3 million dollars, but the airport serves 19 million people a year. 

 

Add Bergen airport onto that list as well. Major destinations like Rome and Hamburg left unserved, about 250 demand there, $50000 dollar gate upkeep for just 5 gates and 6 million passengers.

 

Coming for a relatively unexperienced person. 

[Qantas23]

The worst is Australia. Too many airlines for too little passengers.

[Altisssime Airways]

I think that Italy is a good starting point. There are some medium-little airports that are cheap and have a good numer of pax (Bergamo, Palermo, Ciampino, Verona, Bologna,..). You are close to Europe and Africa too, you can choose between a wide range of destinations

[keanseeley]

Personally I like to find either airports that are underserved by other airlines, or airports that have such a high passenger flow that they can sustain a route to anywhere (i.e. Atlanta).

[JCPoly]

I always start at Indianapolis International or Fort Wayne Int.

 

Both are less commonly used and they act as gateways to larger airports like Chicago O'Hare, Milwaukee, Buffalo, JFK, and others.

Dude, Buffalo is actually a really good starting place for the US.  No competition up front, and then you can expand to larger airports as well.  I might know from a couple games of experience...

[kingoftheskies]

If you're in a small world, quickly snatch Dubai. Dubai can be reached from any point in the world (with sufficient demand) and demand is pretty high (average ~1500 daily Y class pax high) for short-haul/medium-haul routes.

[PiggyWhiskey]

Far away from half of the globe ex London New York
I did this once and I had to bankrupt it

I started my first game in R1 in Australia (started in Sydney) 7 years after the game started and I'm 80 in the ratings and climbing.

Worth several billion and 32 Mil DOP.

There is some competition, but there are still tonnes of totally empty routes.

So Australia is still a great place to start.

Not as good/easy as Europe/USA for sheer numbers of Airports. But still great to play

[Stevphfeniey]

Basically wherever you're probably thinking of starting, 10+ other people have the same idea.

[JimBob1]

Depends on the political restrictions, how good you are and if you want a top 10 airline.

 

In a fresh game I always start in one of the largest airports and try to dominate it's market.

[kingoftheskies]

What if I am decent but not great and want to be in the top 10 and i am not joining a fresh world?

It's really hard to catch up into the top 10 (based on valuation) if you did not start in the beginning.

[Denver.]

South Sudan. Unless Zipp starts an airline there too.

[Toughteam]

the 2nd most popular city like abu dhabi or like strategic like Doha

[KSmash]

Start from Chengdu or Chongqing or Xian or Wuhan in China

[soggy_sage]

Taipei Songshan is a great place to start, generally never taken by other airlines.

[mastacheifa117]

Look for any of these airports and make sure that they have a lot of gates that are empty:

 

-Charlotte Douglas 

-Burbank (Los Angeles area)

-San Diego

-Sao Paulo

-Anchorage (you can get 757 to Moscow and Heathrow)

-Indianapolis 

-Tampa (risky)

-Las Vegas (requires luck + early start)

-St. Louis

-St. Paul-Minneapolis 

-Philadelphia

 

Most of these are large airports in large cities that people seem to forget about. 

[KINGXyro]

Australia is a pretty good country to start in, expand domestically and make sure you have presence in the three major cities early on the game. This is where regional routes comes into play there are fair amounts of low-demand routes that people seem to left out all the time.

 

Macau is also a good one, with one airport only, you only have to secure one operating base. Flights into mainland China is a good start that can give you earnings up to a million dollars per day on an Airbus A320-200 in dual-class configuration. (Its also a good learning ground if you're a new player).

 

Both countries are good for long-haul routes.

[mastacheifa117]

Santa Ana in California is relatively shielded from most major airlines by its short runway (No A321, B757, B737-800) and its got quite some demand, but it could be hard to grow out of it.

 

Albuquerque is amazing because people seem to forget about it. Same for Charlotte and Fort Lauderdale, and sometimes Phoenix.

 

If you can get Salt Lake City and Baltimore early on, you're gold.

[j___duran]

I find secondary airports to be rather safe. EWR instead of JFK, MDW instead of ORD, LGW instead of LHR, Orly Instead of CDG. etc

[Alleron airways]

Budapest is perfect if you want to have best reputation without any competition at all.

Abu dhabi is PERFECT for top 10.

[NNR]

in the modern worlds, any EU country! you can easily run an intra-EU network