c52
28th Apr 2019, 08:50
How on earth can an airline begin to approach such a decision? There are four, possibly five Airbuses, five Boeings and one Chinese competitor, each possibly with range/payload variations. There's a strong possibility of a new Boeing if you wait a year or two.
You can fit each one with varying numbers of seats in an ever-increasing number of classes.
You guess you can sell certain numbers of seats at certain prices if the comfort level is what the market happens to want and the world economy changes in various ways.
You know your current routes but you don't really know what you'll be able to fly in five years.
And you work out that aircraft 1 is most profitable for flights between some city pairs if you equip it with seven first class seats and 250 generously-pitched economy seats.
And aircraft 2 is most profitable for other city pairs if you cram it to the legal limit with economy seats.
And aircraft 3 is most profitable for some routes in other circumstances
And aircraft 4 is most economical at 475 knots but aircraft 5 at 500.
And you don't have all that much choice over delivery slots.
And your government will look favourably on you if you support local industry.
And it's more profitable only to have one aircraft type in your fleet.
And countless other factors.
---
Are you going to put a billion variations into your computer, hope it's programmed correctly, and see which combination is the overall winner? Or might you just say, we buy on the basis of initial and ongoing costs, fuel consumption and square metres of floor space and leave everything else till later?
Thank you for your thoughts. I am not associated with Atmosphere Airlines or anything else.
You can fit each one with varying numbers of seats in an ever-increasing number of classes.
You guess you can sell certain numbers of seats at certain prices if the comfort level is what the market happens to want and the world economy changes in various ways.
You know your current routes but you don't really know what you'll be able to fly in five years.
And you work out that aircraft 1 is most profitable for flights between some city pairs if you equip it with seven first class seats and 250 generously-pitched economy seats.
And aircraft 2 is most profitable for other city pairs if you cram it to the legal limit with economy seats.
And aircraft 3 is most profitable for some routes in other circumstances
And aircraft 4 is most economical at 475 knots but aircraft 5 at 500.
And you don't have all that much choice over delivery slots.
And your government will look favourably on you if you support local industry.
And it's more profitable only to have one aircraft type in your fleet.
And countless other factors.
---
Are you going to put a billion variations into your computer, hope it's programmed correctly, and see which combination is the overall winner? Or might you just say, we buy on the basis of initial and ongoing costs, fuel consumption and square metres of floor space and leave everything else till later?
Thank you for your thoughts. I am not associated with Atmosphere Airlines or anything else.