Where is the best place to start an airline (strategically)

I think some really underappreciated airports that I find are in Asia are Jeju and Naha (Japan and South Korea). Like in one of my worlds I own about 10% of the service @ Naha with just 1.3 million dollars, but the airport serves 19 million people a year. 

Add Bergen airport onto that list as well. Major destinations like Rome and Hamburg left unserved, about 250 demand there, $50000 dollar gate upkeep for just 5 gates and 6 million passengers.

Coming for a relatively unexperienced person. 

north korea

no one will ever do that

50 demand on every route so easy to spamline

domestic routes demand 100

lol

cant fly to US

fly 10 routes with one plane

such a good start

The worst is Australia. Too many airlines for too little passengers.

The worst is Australia. Too many airlines for too little passengers.

Far away from half of the globe ex London New York

I did this once and I had to bankrupt it

I think that Italy is a good starting point. There are some medium-little airports that are cheap and have a good numer of pax (Bergamo, Palermo, Ciampino, Verona, Bologna,..). You are close to Europe and Africa too, you can choose between a wide range of destinations

Personally I like to find either airports that are underserved by other airlines, or airports that have such a high passenger flow that they can sustain a route to anywhere (i.e. Atlanta).

I always start at Indianapolis International or Fort Wayne Int.

 

Both are less commonly used and they act as gateways to larger airports like Chicago O'Hare, Milwaukee, Buffalo, JFK, and others.

Dude, Buffalo is actually a really good starting place for the US.  No competition up front, and then you can expand to larger airports as well.  I might know from a couple games of experience...

If you're in a small world, quickly snatch Dubai. Dubai can be reached from any point in the world (with sufficient demand) and demand is pretty high (average ~1500 daily Y class pax high) for short-haul/medium-haul routes.

Far away from half of the globe ex London New York
I did this once and I had to bankrupt it

I think starting an airline in secondary city in China like Shenyang/Hangzhou/Lanzhou would really help.

A lot of open routes, some demand, no competition, low gate cost. Perfect.

You can go to larger airports later on.

Depends on the political restrictions, how good you are and if you want a top 10 airline.

In a fresh game I always start in one of the largest airports and try to dominate it's market.

Depends on the political restrictions, how good you are and if you want a top 10 airline.

 

In a fresh game I always start in one of the largest airports and try to dominate it's market.

What if I am decent but not great and want to be in the top 10 and i am not joining a fresh world?

What if I am decent but not great and want to be in the top 10 and i am not joining a fresh world?

It's really hard to catch up into the top 10 (based on valuation) if you did not start in the beginning.

There is a guy in S4B and he spams 400 gates at every single tiny airport in US East Coast and do not use them at all. He spammed from a tiny airline to position 2 and probably in the future position 1, which has about 2 times the valuation as the 2nd place before that spammer come out. He is really disgusting to play against.

the 2nd most popular city like abu dhabi or like strategic like Doha

Taipei Songshan is a great place to start, generally never taken by other airlines.

Look for any of these airports and make sure that they have a lot of gates that are empty:

-Charlotte Douglas 

-Burbank (Los Angeles area)

-San Diego

-Sao Paulo

-Anchorage (you can get 757 to Moscow and Heathrow)

-Indianapolis 

-Tampa (risky)

-Las Vegas (requires luck + early start)

-St. Louis

-St. Paul-Minneapolis 

-Philadelphia

Most of these are large airports in large cities that people seem to forget about.