Tips for New Players

Hardcore spamlines don't configure their fleets, they stay with the config when the used planes were bought.

There is no such thing as a hardcore spamline. While there's a thin line between quality and spam, there is a very thick line between spamline and Docline. And I know how to run a Docline, 47000 planes

--Regional aiports with lower landing and handling charges than larger established airports
--Limiting IFS--if any--to inexpensive snacks
--No IFE
 

Bad idea. IFS raises extra cash for the airline(especially LCC carriers). IFE does cost addditional money but it boosts your reputation(you can charge higher prices)

After following advice found in this post, I realized that;

no- tiptoeing around competition is bad

yes- no IFE/IFS is a good idea

yes- ULCC is a great method

yes- regional airports can be better

yes- flying to, say, London, it is better to go Birmingham over Heathrow. Less Competiton, less gate cost, almost the same amount of passengers

no- high costs will kill you.

yes- cutting costs to fit the ULCC is a great idea.

yes- one aircraft type is a LOT less expensive a month.

 

Also, Open worlds are great for starting.

 

Thanks to those who put posts in for the tips!

My tip is:

1. If you are in a recent world(starting in late 90s to 2000), take out leases on efficient aircraft such as the A320 series(I recommend the A318 and A319 models).

2. Give yourself 3 star IFS by putting quality before price.

3. Keep staff wages down. But don't pay every person $7 per hour.

4. Make sure you are getting a fair price for your route. Say for example,$60 for LHR-ATL isn't a good deal at all.

5. Stick to one family and leasing until you have around $70 million in cash.

Basically, in ae, don't touch anything under 19 seats

The Cessna F406 is amazingly profitable. Low fuel cost. I recommend it over the Dash 6(lower fuel cost, easier to match demand)

What does it mean LCC? My airline name it's LCC based on my real name.

What does it mean LCC? My airline name it's LCC based on my real name.

LCC = Low Cost Carrier. Like JetBlue, Transavia or AirAsia to an extent.

What a stupid prefix.

ive a problem (-53,000,000 cash) how can i solve it

ive a problem (-53,000,000 cash) how can i solve it

Thats a complicated question but the easy answer is go bankrupt and try again.  It's not real money...so it's not really a problem!

ive a problem (-53,000,000 cash) how can i solve it

Simply add 53,000,000 dollars to your bank. Zing!

Nah, sorry kid, that thing is dead.

ive a problem (-53,000,000 cash) how can i solve it

 

Go bankrupt and restart. Then stick to one plane type to get started and don't buy into a second until you have several of the first.

Each different type of plane has a base maintenance fee per month that will be ruining your airline.

Can somebody explain me how to apply IFS and IFE to my already existing routes?

Can somebody explain me how to apply IFS and IFE to my already existing routes?

IFE changes can be applied by changing aircraft configuration  (on Configure Cabin Layout), but routes won't recalculate immediately.

 

With changing IFS already in use you'll have to go one route at a time. (there was an option to change all of currently used IFS but I guess because people changed their minds too often and route recalculation took too much of resources)

Surely you can alter IFS to all routes on the "confgiure inflight service" tab where you can set defaults for various range bands? I've had no issues updating en masse this way.

I used to play AE a few years ago and just came back.

A lot of the stuff I learned back then still applies but a good working knowledge of math is also important for success in AE

 

I joined S4 almost a year after it started and was about # 80 airline .......... in about 12 hours I went from the bottom to the #1 airline.

 

My success was I leased nothing but A300-600R's........lots of them and put them on medium routes from second tier airports that did not have much competition.

I maximized the prices and profits ........rinse and repeat.

I was the only one doing this so I leased up every single A300-600R that was available which was all of them and got them making money.......lots of it.

Within a few hours I had almost 70 of them making 600K plus profits each and then I started buying instead of leasing.

My airline is CP Air.

 

Every game is different and every one has a few plane models that do very well, the key is to pick one and run with it.

 

Just remember.......by far the single biggest expense for an airline is fuel. 

If you can, find a big airport that is very underserved. If unsuccesful, find an airport that has many airports that you can easily fly to (preferably major/regional hubs).

Always know what kind of airline you want to become (LCC, FSC etc.) and what aircraft types you want to fly (you`ll probably star with a 737,Airbus, or MD if possible).

Alliances help with loadfactor etc.

Try to fly as far as you can at the beginning of the game.

Making money is easy. Just look for routes that don't have too much competition. When your world matures, all the major routes will end up with competition and end up less profitable, so the trick is finding stuff like nice 300 pax routes all to yourself.

I find the main limiting factor in sandbox mode is time. You literally hit a point where you make more money than you can spend on new planes and utilize.

In the realistic world I'm finding the most important thing to buy enough planes of different types - you hit a point pretty quickly where you can afford to lease more planes than you have the time to put on routes, but in the early stages of the realistic world there's no used market. So Boeing can only deliver you so many 737s. So then you go to Airbus. Then you start buying dc9s. And so on. Not being able to summon 60 planes instantly changes things a lot!

So efficiency matters, but it's not the whole story.

If you fly further, your planes will take longer to get there so you won't move as many pax. There's less competition which is nice but it seems like there's a range of optimal profitability which drops off on the short (higher fixed costs) and long (less efficient use of time, you will get planes with 20+ hours to fill and need to find a use for them) ends.

Here is one of the ways people start their airline.

Before that, starting plane is any choice and home airport can be primary OR secondary.

1.Start your IFS.

2. Put the choices of breakfast, lunch and dinner the worst price and charge it the highest price (breakfast $50, lunch and dinner $75)

3. Put all the snacks on the best price and charge it free.

4. Go to step 2 and tick all. Leave all price free.

5. Now the profit is around $401 and the rating is considerate.

6.Name the IFS and use it in every single flight.

7. The IFS will be a boost in fact.

8. Buy a plane no more than $15,000,000 (in world S4) or $3,000,000(in other world)

OR

8. Lease a plane no more than $600,000(in world S4) or $350,000(in other world)

9. Open routes that have less than 15-35% of people occupied (already opened the route) It is best to find one that you are the first to open.

10. Add FEW planes FIRST, before YOU spend on NON-profiting flights. You can ALWAYS add later, rather than WASTE on money first.

11. If you want a better profit, use the IFS and configure a seating plan.

12. Don't go below $3,000,000 if possible.

13. If you want to share an airline with another, make sure you BE CAREFUL

14. Lease Gates around $10,000 to $200,000 only.

15. Do the last few steps several times until your daily profit is around $650,000 and above.

16.Check on finance, and leased planes and gates.

17. Do the steps from 8 again and again, until you have at least $45,000,000 (other world) or $110,000,000 (world S4)

18. Now buy planes no more than $35,000,000 (world S4) or $15,000,000 (other world)

OR

18. Lease planes no more than $950,000 (world S4) or $550,000(other world)

19.Repeat the steps from 9-12 always and from step 18.

20. Keep this up for long term, until daily profits are at least $12,000,000.

21. Until your money is average $175,000,000 in other world or $260,000,000 in world S4 keep dong steps 19-20.

22. If your money has reached the limit in step 21, build a terminal. (If you have not been able to have any more gates, do not follow step 20.)

23. Now start buying planes instead of leasing, for the whole experience is enough to train your money handling.

24. Keep this up, and you'll have a great airline.

25. Plus, now you can configure your IFE and make or join alliances and compete for the ranking.

I have only one sentence for all players: Concorde is the most efficient plane in this whole game due to its speed. They will fit on almost any route. Operate them as much as you can. Good luck!