Alpha_Waffle

Hi folks,

Following-up my previous post about seat configuration, I'm revealing more of the results I've collected about the game's mechanics. I'm not sure how much of this I'll do -- as it puts me at a disadvantage to share my secrets -- but for now I have a few more posts planned.

Based on data I've collected, price per ticket is dependent solely on distance, and is described by a piecewise linear function with twelve regions. These prices are for round-trip tickets and are based on one-way distance:

<100 miles: $0.94 / mile

100-200 miles: $0.69 / mile

200-300 miles: $0.59 / mile

300-400 miles: $0.46 / mile

400-500 miles: $0.34 / mile

500-1500 miles: $0.28 / mile

1500-3000 miles: $0.24 / mile

3000-6000 miles: $0.19 / mile

6000-9000 miles: $0.16 / mile

>9000 miles: $0.13 / mile

A scatter plot of all the data points:

 Picture1.png   249.71KB   0 downloads

A better view of the fun area under 500 miles:

 Picture2.png   369.58KB   0 downloads

Hi folks,

I've seen lots of posts about seat configurations and lots of out-of-date calculators, and so on. To rectify this problem, I'm providing my own data on seat selection for you to use.

Based on data I collected, route demand per class consistently follows the following trend:

Y: 86% of total demand
C: 12% of total demand
F: 2% of total demand

That is, on a route with 1000 passengers, you can reasonably expect 860 economy-class passengers, 120 business-class passengers and 20 first-class passengers.

Now, for seat configuration, capacity per aircraft is based on an all-economy configuration. First- and business-class seats take up more space in the following way:

Y: 1 economy seat
C: 1.6 economy seats
F: 2.5 economy seats

Note that these are always rounded up, so with a capacity of 100, you can the following example configurations:

0F, 1C, 98Y (total used capacity: 99.4)
0F, 2C, 96Y (total used capacity: 99.2)
1F, 0C, 97Y (total used capacity: 99.5)

This means you can optimize by, for example, placing first-class seats in multiples of 2 and business-class seats in multiples of 5:

0F, 5C, 92Y (total used capacity: 100)
2F, 0C, 95Y (total used capacity: 100)

Therefore to match the number of per-class seats with the amount of per-class demand, we want the following:

86 Y seats with 1 capacity for 86 used capacity.
12 C seats with 1.6 capacity for 19.2 used capacity.
2 F seats with 2.5 capacity 5 used capacity.

So adding this up we have a total capacity of 110.2, so as a percentage of total capacity we have:

Y: ~78.0% of total capacity
C: ~17.4% of total capacity
F: ~4.5% of total capacity

An aircraft with a capacity of 551 would perfectly match these requirements and have an ideal seating arrangement.

Based on this data, the following configurations are within 1% of the ideal ratios:

164-166 cap: 128-130Y 18C 3F
219-222 cap: 171-173Y 24C 4F
328-333 cap: 256-260Y 36C 6F
437-443 cap: 341-346Y 48C 8F
546-556 cap: 426-434Y 60C 10F
601-602 cap: 469-470Y 65C 11F
604-612 cap: 471-478Y 66C 11F
655-658 cap: 511-514Y 71C 12F
659-667 cap: 514-521Y 72C 12F

_{(Note that I have removed ranges for which there are no applicable aircraft in-game)}

In general, in terms of the maximum available seats in an all-economy configuration, the number of seats per class as a percentage of this maximum are:

Y: 78.04%
C: 10.89%
F: 1.81%

_{(Note that these do not add up to 100% because of the capacity losses from first- and business-class seats)}

So to calculate the number of seats you should assign, take the total capacity A stated in-game and do the following:

Y seats = [ 0.780399274 × A ]
C seats = [ 0.108892922 × A ]
F seats = [ 0.01814882 × A ]

where [ x ] is x rounded to the nearest integer.

I have attached a spreadsheet with the ideal configuration for every capacity up to 853, the A380-800.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have.