So I've recently completed my first AE experience in the sandbox world. I'm pretty pleased how it ended up and have figured a lot of this out. But I have a few questions I don't really have answers to I am hoping someone can help as I start my first airline in a "normal world."
1. I have seen the phrase "Scam IFS" on these forums. What does that mean? I also don't understand really what to do with the IFS. I saw one poster who said you should "maximize profit" on IFS when starting out. Does this mean offering all the options and charging the maximum amount? I really don't know how to set this up optimally in this game. (I intend to operate a 3 class airline, not LCC)
2. I have seen the phrase "Spam Airline" on these forums? What does that mean? I have assumed it means the experience I had with my last airline--I am nicely serving a route with a 300 pax demand and some crazy man or woman comes in and dumps 35 747s a day on it. Does it mean that, or something else? And how do these people make any money doing that?
3. Russian airplanes--there have been comments on these forums that "Russian airplanes don't work in western countries" or "they are unreliable" or "they work better in Soviet bloc places compared to other places." This doesn't make any sense to me--isn't this just a giant database table where the factors of pax, speed, fuel flow, range etc are combined to produce a resulting profit or loss? Or is there some algorithm that causes Russian planes to have vastly higher maintenance costs or use more fuel if operating in North America vs Russia? Essentially, is this just real world bias people are making in these comments, or is there something in this game that makes these planes worse than their specs already suggest?
4. Employees--there was a comment on these forums that you should cut employees pay and reserve employees etc to nothing to max profit and it has no effect. Does this have an effect on the frequency factor?
5. Bonds--when is it a good idea to take debt financing? I cannot figure out when I will have to pay back to the bonds and the amount of the payments/repayment period.
I appreciate your help.