4 replies to this topic

[The Nova Group]

In real life, an airline would only choose one or two aircraft type by category (regional, short-medium, and long haul) to save cost, since operating the same type of aircraft helps with crews and reduces' cost. An example of this is Southwest that only operates the B737.
I was wondering if the simulator could have the same system, it would help airlines look more real since today we see some airlines that only have one or two airplane per aircraft type, and operate every single type in the game, which does not make it really realistic.

[un1]

I like keeping neat fleets too, (Sim 2 Beta, not Sim 2 I'm talking about) however I enjoy expanding from small fleets then to larger ones. I also have a minimum of 5 aircraft per type to reduce costs, and I like to have multiple aircraft types in aircraft families. (B747 is an exemption) I also like to have both Airbus and Boeing aircraft even though they are very similar in design (however, when you compare Bombardier with Embraer it's different because I am Canadian). I am only now however starting to see a reduction in costs though in my A330/A340 family because I have 50+ aircraft in there. (A330-300, A330-200, A340-600, A340-500).

[deltashields]

My airline, Red Rider, in sim 2 only operates 5 different types, I think airlines should be given some credit for operating fewer types. For example I operate: Bombardier Q series aircraft [for short haul regional routes], Beech 1900 [for thin regional routes {planning to replace them w/ Q100's}], Boeing 737 series [for short haul routes up to intercontinental routes], A330 aircraft [for europe-asia flights & west coast-asia flights], and Embraer E-jets [for routes ranging from US transcon & regional, and routes up to 2,500 mi. long from all my hubs.] Generally in the real world airlines try to operate w/ as few types as possible for maintenance reasons. If the simulation incorporated maintanence costs and type similarity it would be more realistic.

[The Nova Group]

The problem here is the aircraft delivery system. You can only get 2 aircraft per manufacturer per month. Which is why people order from every manufacturer, they get more aircrafts per month that way, which enables them to expand. But big aircraft makers like Airbus and Boeing operate different production lines for different aircraft families. Airbus for example has 3 A320 production lines (one in Toulouse, one in Hamburg and one in China), 1 A330/A340 production line in Toulouse, and one A380 line also in Toulouse. Each production line is independent from the other. So already, if the sim separated delivery into new manufacturers (Airbus A380, Airbus A330/A340, Airbus A320) that would enable more aircrafts to arrive per month, making less wait and creating more realistic fleets.

[Elchie]

Just as a side note: The simulation already includes a hidden fleet-system. The cost calculation respects the number of aircrafts out of the same family, it's not displayed to the user, but using many aircrrafts of the same type will reduce costs.

And the aircraft delivery system is one of the things I will rework in 2010