Jump to content

Russ's Content

There have been 161 items by Russ (Search limited from 17-June 23)


By content type

See this member's


Sort by                Order  

#29937 Question

Posted by Russ on 11 February 2006 - 05:36 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

It is free, but starting now has you at a serious disadvantage. Alot of airlines are well established and there are no more gates available, well you get 5 when you start but that's it ;-)

You wont make any money.


That's not strictly true, if you choose other than NA or
EUR gates are availble but the ranges are so long, it is hard to make any money with small planes.

But I would suggest playing the game so that you understand some of the strategy behind the game play. You may not break the top 100 but you will be in a much better position to be a palyer in the next round.


#32206 Gate Rental

Posted by Russ on 19 April 2006 - 05:59 PM in Bugs

Not sure if it is a bug or new functionality, but the gate rental did not happen last month but was posted to my current month in the financials.

I don't care strongly whether it is BOM or EOM (actually prefer BOM).


#31485 Expanding terminals and hubs

Posted by Russ on 29 March 2006 - 07:51 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

I know that you have to reset routes if you build a terminal on a hub. But do you have to do that if you expand an existing terminal?


#30646 Dead airlines

Posted by Russ on 26 February 2006 - 07:16 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Now that this round has been going for a while, what to do about the dead airlines, those who haven't been playing for a few weeks and are just ocuppying space.

(self interest note: I am interested in the gates they are sitting on).

What has been done in past rounds?


#30705 Some players are loosing sight of what this is about

Posted by Russ on 27 February 2006 - 11:37 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

as a business tactic, this is acceptable although annoying for those on the recieving end. (that is the whole point)

as spite, it is simply childish


#28543 Idle Slot Fees

Posted by Russ on 26 January 2006 - 08:30 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

Charge for unused slots at an airport. If you use one or 5 slots, it still represents one gate. And a lot of gates are being used for only one slot, thereby consuming the availible number of gates at popular airports.

There are numerous ways to institute this depending on what the objective is. For example, if you want to affect feeder airlines, then there will be an economic cost to owning a gate an not flying it.

One scenario, allow one idle slot but charge for any more idle slots.

Charge on a sliding scale, no charge for airports with more than 10 availble gates, a small charge for airports with 0-10 and a large charge for airports with 0 (maybe sliding with the gate fee).

The objective is to pay for idle resources in a scarcity environment.


#31442 Gate Costs

Posted by Russ on 23 March 2006 - 10:56 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Is there an cost to holding a gate and letting the monthly audit remove the excess gate rather than manually dropping it?

Do I pay a prorated gate cost if I manually drop it or pay the monthly cost and then lose it if I let the system audit do the dirty work?


#31158 atr vs 328

Posted by Russ on 14 March 2006 - 01:10 AM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Perhaps someone with experince could update the strategy guide


#31125 atr vs 328

Posted by Russ on 12 March 2006 - 06:20 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Reading the Strat Manual, the recommended short haul aircraft is the atr-42, but there never seems to be any for resale. the brokers sell the 328.

What are the comparative advantages of each plane? Why is the 328 so popular?


#31146 atr vs 328

Posted by Russ on 13 March 2006 - 04:34 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

The ATR-42 is a great aircraft for short hops as it has the capacity...however at this point in the game I would say the 328 because short hops are all covered although you can still make a tiny profit.
The 328 has less capacity, but its faster and has more range so you can go one step further...but we are talking about aircraft a newbie would use after a few days if the airline was profitable enough...when I just use 328s for holding gates atm so I can expand in the future, and the small profit they make helps me pay the gates monthly without loosing anything

It really all depends on the distance of the route and if its crowded!..if its under 900m the ATR-42 is the aircraft you want, although if you already have 328 with hours available then 328!


I can understand the use of a 328 as a gate filler, I use my ATR-42 in the same role now. Use 'em if you got 'em. But I don't understand; why buy a 328 for a longer range route rather than a Q400. The cost difference isn't that much but the increase in seats and potential profits per route are much larger.

I figure there must be a reason that the brokers are selling 328's and not ATR-42's (and people buying them) I just don't see it.


#32929 Mexico Legalises Drugs...

Posted by Russ on 29 April 2006 - 03:55 PM in Off Topic

reverse immigration; bring the gringos south.


#34397 Aca

Posted by Russ on 29 May 2006 - 04:56 PM in Bugs

274 gates still availible at acapulco?


#31494 Creating Hubs

Posted by Russ on 30 March 2006 - 04:30 AM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Build a hub when you have a conciderable amount of traffic running through that particular airport. Also, a hub and spoke network is the only way a hub will work out for you. :( as for airlines having hubs with little traffic or a small number of gates, at this stage in the game a major airline can just go out pick an airport, hub that airport, build a small (or large) terminal and take over the airport. I have built most of my terminals and hubs under 20 gates, and they work fine. But my route structor is very hub/spoke.


So when setting up my routes should I go for LF rather than max profit? If I have a choice between a LF of 72 or 66 with minor profit implications should I go for the higher LF or when I add the hub will the LF increase?


#31492 Creating Hubs

Posted by Russ on 30 March 2006 - 01:16 AM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Is having widebodies important?


#31488 Creating Hubs

Posted by Russ on 29 March 2006 - 09:18 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

well, a hub causes you gates to cost 2x more. So, I would wait until you have: A) A terminal with 25 gates (don't build a terminal with less!), :( Significant jet operations using jets 737 or larger, and C) A well developed route structure.


What do you mean by a well developed route structure?


#31486 Creating Hubs

Posted by Russ on 29 March 2006 - 07:58 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

I have read the Strategy Guide and researched the threads but I am still unsure of when to create a hub.

According to the Strategy Guide, I should wait until I have about 20 gates, but I notice that many players create a hub with far fewer gates. I assume that results in a positive cash flow but not as significant as a larger number of gates.

Are there other factors that contribute to a hub? Such as % of airport traffic. number of cities served, frequency of flights? Or is it simply a matter of slots used?


#31491 Creating Hubs

Posted by Russ on 30 March 2006 - 01:15 AM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

make sure that you have enough routes (serving many destinations) to justify the extra expense. You need to make sure that you have route that connect to several different locations (like europe, asia, and the U.S.). This is because, even if you served all cities in, say, the Northeast, but not any other location, it would not make sense to create a hub becuase most of the connections would have to compete with direct routes going to the same locations.


What about SA? And if I fly to Eur or Asia, should I go to a major hub like LHR or a smaller airport?


#31994 Cash in the financial statement

Posted by Russ on 17 April 2006 - 10:01 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

No, because if you could see that, then other airline could smash your routes and instantly make you lose profit, knowing you couldn't do anything because you don't have the cash. Anyway, it's not like American goes up to United and says, "Hey, United, how much cash you got on you?"


Actually, they can figure that out from their SEC fileings. Maybe only quarterly.

I am not sure the logic of your first statement works since I don't need a cash statement to smash routes. All I need is enough DOP to cover the losses and react to any retalitory rate changes. Route smashing would only affect cash if the victum only had a couple routes and if you could make the DOP go negative.


#31582 Cash in the financial statement

Posted by Russ on 05 April 2006 - 08:21 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

Add cash on hand on the financial statement. It would be nice to see that figure when looking at other airlines. Also the amount that has been used for aircraft deposits (restricted cash)


#31761 Take off Costs

Posted by Russ on 13 April 2006 - 10:09 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

I was reading over in A.net that the rule of thumb for takeoffs is about 1 hour fuel.

I suggest that a 1 hour fuel cost be added for each route leg to reflect this. That change should be very easy to add to the programming.

This will change the economics of all those routes of less than one hour flying time, especially the WB on short routes.


#31944 Take off Costs

Posted by Russ on 17 April 2006 - 06:31 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

Dont belive everything you read on the internet...

I try not too, that is why I threw that out to the experts and cited my rather shakey source. Like slashdot, some great info there but a lot of pure crap too. It did make some sense in that more fuel would be used in climbing than cruising.

Regardless, I was trying to come up with a reasonable solution for WB on short routes. At least in the US, they don't run the aircraft that way and it does give the big carriers an insurmountable advantage over any particular route.


#30906 secondary airports

Posted by Russ on 05 March 2006 - 03:48 AM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

all of those airports are in the game (Chicago is midway BTW, not rockford). If you want to follow the SWA business plan, you can do so. In fact, this late in the game, that is the only sensible approach. For the same reason; SWA would have gotten killed if they tried to move into the big airports (re: independence air). Now they are large enough to be able to compete with anyone.


#33875 Building a Terminal at a hub

Posted by Russ on 17 May 2006 - 03:00 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

Nope, in that respect you will not lose the gates. Gates you build yourself i.e with a terminal are yours forever (well untill the next reset :o)

You can build a 50 gate terminal and just use 1 gate if you want the other 49 will remain unsed and at your disposal.


A couple other facts to remember:

You can't release a terminal. Those 50 gates are yours forever, as well as the rent fees.

If you hub a terminal, you can't dehub. The only way to dehub is to release the gates, and since you can't do that with a terminal, you are stuck with both the hub fees and the terminal costs.


#33878 Building a Terminal at a hub

Posted by Russ on 17 May 2006 - 04:22 PM in Game Discussion (SIM2)

What is the benefit of a hub at all?


First search the forum threads, there have been many discussions on this subject. Should be a FAQ.

But long story short: It increases the LF of any routes that you are flying from that hub. The caveat is that the costs of the hub outway the benefits until you fill about 20 gates.


#29129 Number of Gates

Posted by Russ on 01 February 2006 - 07:43 PM in Suggestions and Feature Requests

Add the number of total gates availible for each airport to the strategy guide. There is currently a list of airports and gate prices.

this may quite some of the questions on where all the gates went.


  1. Russ's Content