10 replies to this topic

[Russ]

What are the relative advantages of starting at a major airport vs a minor airport. What type of strategies work best?

[Glennos]

Basically

Major airport: more profits but more competition
Minor Airport: less profits , less competition

[Russ]

Yes, but what strategies would take advantage of each approach.

[piercey]

You need to find a perfect blend. For example: NRT is a great market with not as much competition.

[WSHNationals]

Well, the major hub, widebodies to everywhere will work better from a large airport(ATL, JFK, LAX, LHR), however at a smaller airport, a large fleet of A32S, 757 73G etc. will work best, and use those to fly domestics. Also, from a larger hub like LAX, you can profitably fly many routes that you couldn't profitably from other airports i.e. LAX-TLS(IND-TLS wouldn't make much money, no matter how big your hub.), thus allowing you to more profitably fly domestic routes. This will give you a smaller hub and route selections if you choose a smaller airport, thus making you create more hubs. Some airlines have been successful using small airports as hubs(i.e. Swiss Swiss[Gone] and BHX), so either way has a chance for success. At this point in the game, bigger airports are more full, and a smaller airport would be best.

[WSHNationals]

You need to find a perfect blend. For example: NRT is a great market with not as much competition.

great job, now you'll get more competition there

[Boy]

I started at SJC for 2 versions and always wound up somewhere else but was still nonetheless very successful.

[galapagapop]

A small airport works is its located by a large number of big airports. As a lot of advantages can be taken advantage of in early goings by flying from the smaller or decent sized airport to the larger ones. Small airports still stay decently quiet even at this stage of the game.

[Febreze]

You need to find a perfect blend. For example: NRT is a great market with not as much competition.

I agree... I started my airline for the third time in Japan out of Tokyo HND, and since month 1 I have gained a steady proffit that has slowly grown throughout the year along with my fleet, and my cities served.

[BarbulaM1]

Major airports are quite a pain to fly out of once you get this far into the game, and at the start of the game. You can start making tons yes, but you are really suprised when someone starts poping up on your routes. I started at DEN and moved to ORD this round, extreamly annoying. Route resets happen hourly almost, and international routes are the bomb this late in the game, domestic is really really crap out of majors now.

[Timsher]

Majors... definately