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Tips for Airline Manager

by: Fareez

 

Over the one month I discovered a nifty little airline simulator game called Airline Manager on Facebook. My airline is called U-Turn Airways. Coming across a variety of questions on the discussion boards, I have written this strategy guide that may help you get ahead in the game. So, I would like to share with you some tips that I used.

 

 

Planes
Probably the most asked question in the game is “which is the best plane for use in Airline Manager?”.

This is my suggest,

When you first start the game you will get a Boeing 737-800 for free. Sell this immediately at your hangar. Then you need to start generating a good cash flow. For starting to buying your aircraft, the best aircraft is the Dassault Mercure from Dassault Aviation Company which will pay back your investment within 15 hours of operations. ** I not suggest you to invest by buying a stocks because buying a aircraft is more profitable for the starting player. The only drawback of this strategy is the short 1,700km range of the Mercure. To earn money quickly, you will need to play the game frequently, may be every 2 hours or so. Who said gamers need sleep?

 

 

Once you reach about 200 Mercures, I recommend you moving up to the new type of aircraft DC-10-10 from McDonnell Douglas Company. It will give you a 250 passenger capacity and a range of 6,436km. The range of the DC-10-10′s will allow you a 6 hour break from the game.

 

Next, the IL-86 for short range (3,800km) high passenger count (350 pax) and IL-96-400 for medium range (10,000km) high passenger count (436 pax) can also be considered for select routes. I recommend you to buy 600 units of IL 96-400 aircraft. Set it 300 for in morning and the rest 300 at ninght. This is because IL 96-400 takes 12 hous of flying. So, that is not a problem for you to buy a Fuel.

 

 

Since you are limited to 401 routes (an extension to 451 routes can be purchased) the end goal is to end up with a long distance fleet of 401 Airbus A380s. You can buy and sell a Boeing 747 and a Concorde for the achievement badges once you reach the top.

Income
In AM, the revenue calculation is simple. Gross income is $0.5 per passenger per km. i.e. the number of passengers x the route distance. From this subtract airport taxes which are 15.99% up to a maximum of $200,000.

 

 

Fuel
Unlike the real world, the cost of fuel is actually very low in the overall scheme of things. In the spreadsheet you can change the numbers and do your own “what-if” analysis.

The cost of fuel varies on days of the week, and at times of the day. The lowest price of fuel is $400  per 1,000 pounds (but if the price fall below $400, it is bonus for us. just smile and spread the news with your friends). At present the lowest priced day is Monday and the best time to purchase is right after 01:00GMT till about 04:00GMT. The developers of AM have recently tweaked the schedule and previously Thursdays were also a low cost day for fuel. Now it appears to have shifted to Wednesday and occasionally Fridays.

It is good to slowly start developing a reserve of fuel worth 4~5 days of consumption. At present I am at about 200 million pounds of consumption per day. So I typically stock up about 800~950 million pounds of fuel. The maximum you can store is 1,000,000 pounds but you can increase your tank fuel by using a AM points.

 

Advertising
Simple rule — always advertise, and always select billboards. With no advertising you will loose about 15%~20% of passengers. On a 250 seat DC-10-10 it translates to a loss of $75,000 per 6 hour flight.

The lowest advertising price is around $600. So, I suggest you to buy the advertising IF the price below $1000 and set it for 7 days.

 

Base Hub
Use the Profile button on the main overview page to select your hub city. Apart from getting an achievement, your hub will automatically show as the originating city.

Finding good routes
AM does not require connections for your flights; i.e. you can have a flight between any two cities. (Remember I told you to leave common airline wisdom at the front door of the game).

Use the “find route” on the flights tab to obtain a demand profile across the world. Click on the Demand column heading for a reverse sorting. Use high demand cities in your planning, but do keep in mind, other players are doing the same.

This website is great for finding routes. Just appreciate the fact that it is a labour of love and has no connection with the developers of AM (just like this guide). Drop him a note of thanks for his effort.

 

 

Catering
This has a very minor impact on your reputation and I recommend it purely as an option if you have the money. You do not loose by not catering, and as you go forward the income relevance drops even further. I transport some 150,000 passengers every day and have a daily cash flow of $500 million. Earning about $500,000 on catering does not hold much charm.

Maintenance
As you operate flights you will have incidents. I recommend opening a 2nd tab and performing repairs reasonably quickly, otherwise your reputation will suffer.

As your planes reach 400 flying hours, you will require them to undergo a C-Check. C-Checks can get expensive (up to $2 million) and will take your aircraft out of commission for anywhere from 6 to 16 hours depending on the aircraft. However, by this time you should be up to 401 routes and this will become just another chore in the game.

Do not miss your C-Checks. You can have a crash and nothing will impact your reputation and airline more.

 

 

Staff
Every once in a day or more frequently, visit the staff tab. Every so often the staff will move from “happy” to “talking” to “unhappy”. Do not let the staff stay “unhappy” you will have a strike, and your reputation will start suffering. I normally let the staff be “talking” for a few hours and then give them a raise.

Airline Value and Pax Points
The best way to increase airline value and earn pax points is to add aircraft to your fleet. Unless absolutely necessary do not spend your pax points.

 

 

Business Jet

The Airbus A318 Elite is available for 3,000 Pax Points. Not worth it in my humble opinion.

 

 

Conclusion
I hope you find this guide useful and helpful, it is by no way full and complete. I request you to please add your own pearls of wisdom. If you find it helpful, feel free to drop in a thank you comment. If you find anything wrong, please feel free to add a correction via a comment.

Enjoy the game

 

I also recommend you to invest in my company U-Turn Airways

regards,

Fareez
the CEO of U-Turns Airways

18 August 2014