Scotia Air Application

Hello! Thank you for the time to consider Scotia Air's application.

Goals
Currently expanding operations in Western Canada, mostly through our Edmonton Hub (YEG).
Currently our main hub in Eastern Canada is located at Toronto Island (YTZ), while we are the largest airline out of YTZ, we will no longer be expanding service to this airport to concentrate on Toronto Pearson (YYZ) for larger flights.

We are looking to add more destinations to the United States (concentrating on West Coast), as well as acquiring larger aircraft.

Long term goals include intercontinental flights to Asia, as well as expanding to Eastern US.


How you can help
As this is my first airline in the Airline Sim Game, any knowledge from Infinity is an asset, as well at interlining agreements, advice on aircraft and general operations.


How we can help you
Scotia Air is committed to becoming a major player in the Canadian market, providing a high level of service for all customers. We strive to include most airports in Canada as regular destinations, creating a complete network across Canada.


Active Player
Daily player, sometimes multiple logins a day, the odd time there may be a few days without activity but never longer than a 3 day stretch.


Preexisting Agreements
While Scotia Air does have interlining agreements with Airlines in the US, nothing is set in stone, just looking to provide the best possible service available to Scotia Air customers as well as partner airlines customers.






Thank you for your consideration,
Scotia Air

Hi there!

First and foremost, thanks for applying to infinity. We're glad that you chose us!

Please be assured that we're begun the debating and discussion process regarding your application. We'd like to remind you to watch this application thread, as we sometimes would like to know more about you and your company. Answers you provide will help us assess the situation and reach a decision faster.

Thanks again!
Infinity Alliance

Hey there!

Thanks for being patient while we discuss your application.

At this time, the alliance believes that you may have the potential to help us with a bit our help and expertise. We'd like to propose the following to you. Please tell us if this is what you'd like and we'll go ahead with it.

We would like to invite Scotia Air as an evaluative, associate airline. Scotia Air will enjoy the privileges of a strategic partnership with member airlines. This means that we are open to interlining and you are free to form cooperative flights and strategic network connections with us, and in return we will guide and support you for the next month in terms of your airline's expansion.

In particular, some members are worried about how large the Canadian market is and we understand that it can at times be an intimidating market for a small airline such as yours.

Basically, if you let us help you, we will automatically re-evaluate your airline in a few weeks time and hopefully by then, you'll be in roaring business. Please tell us if you'd like this to go forward!
Thanks!
Infinity Alliance

PS: Please note that during this period that while we don't mind you applying to other alliances as you won't be a member, that you tell us beforehand. We reserve the right to revoke these partnerships at any time if we deem it necessary.

That is a fantastic idea, I welcome any support support and advice available to me during this time.

Let's begin than!

First of all, could you, please, post your financial stats,
just to get idea on how healthy is your airline and what changes
it can sustain at the moment.

Second thing is fleet selection. From my point of view
CRJ and EMB are very similar families, so you should choose
on of them and get 737/A320 as third category. CRJ are smaller,
but more effective (also have better range); EMB's are bigger.
You should judge it from the load/prices that you have on your current routes.

Third thing are the hubs. ath the moment you have too many of them,
with just few connection. It's much harder to arrange wave properly
with such configuration, so you should concentrate more on the bigger hubs,
in Edmonton/Vancouver and Montreal/Halifax for example.

I would advise against concentrating on YYZ at the moment. There are already few
big airlines and your growth would be hampered by heavy competition.

All of above is just my view of the problem and I expect other alliance members
will add some more advice.

Hi phil,

here's my initial hints .

Hubs: Multiple (mini)-hubs are from my point of view a very sophisticated way of playing AS, yet difficult to manage and, as you can see, of less value for us than a single strong hub. Multiple hubs mean less effective connection possibilities for the rest of the alliance, if we do not want to schedule flights to all of your focus cities.
So a strong local hub would be the weapon of choice, if we plan on cooperating effectively.
If your flights are fully booked, that doesn't mean you have to tear down everything and rebuild your airline from scratch!

Your utility function to be maximized is some black box containing four variables: DEMAND [Size and ground network], SLOTS [expansion potential], COMPETITION [how many effective competing connections; how quick are they growing?] and LOCATION [domestic & international geography]. Runway length should be sufficient throughout all the possible Canadian hubs, transfer time variance is not as important as demand.

Out: YYZ. Will get to crowded and is too "famous" among every AS player, as this airport basically is, where all the used planes come from .

Possible, but not great:
Ottawa - nice geographic position, at least when focusing on Europe, demand is 6/10, which is not what we are looking for.
Winnipeg: Great stuff, locationwise. Right at the centre, but 5 bars of demand basically rule it out.
Calgary: 7/10 demand, but at least two competitors as a force to be reckoned with.
Edmonton: You already have some connections there, demand is 6/10, geographic position...leaves room for improvement .

Great stuff:
Yes, it's YVR! Situated more or less at the Pacific coast, it's a feasible destination for all Asian carriers. Demand is 8/10, second highest for Canada. It's basically empty and up to grab. Ground network features at least 2 further 4/10 demand airports feeding you. It's not in Nova Scotia, and that's the only downside for your airline :p .
I'd clearly go for YVR.

BTW: Your Toronto Island connections are not a bad idea, but will only yield point-to-point passengers, have you noticed that?


Fleet:

Squirrel's thoughts are wisely spoken words. If you really like the EMB and the CRJ, you can stick to the 195 series, while keeping the CRJ, though. Just don't go for 170 / 175 series planes. Still, the upper end of the EMB series can easily be covered by B736 or A318.
If you plan on moving to YVR, I personally would get rid of the EMB195 and stick in some B739s or A320s for lots of shuttles to Toronto, smaller 737s and 319/320s for the rest of the Western airports. There must be considerable demand there.

Would like to see your financials, too !

Hope that will help you out a bit!

Any open questions? Post them here or feel free to contact me ingame (I'm castillair)!

Awesome information!

I see all the valid points on YYZ, YTZ, and the smaller cities.

So now I will focus on YVR, as it is a busier airport, as well located directly on the West Coast.

I am slowly pruning flights out of YTZ (a few don't seem to want to get to full capacity, but some are consistently full).

Most of my Edmonton flights are quite full, so I believe leaving them in place is my best option.

All new routes from now on will be focusing on YVR.


Fleets:

Q400's I use quite a bit and have found them very effective and continue to add more and more, EMB planes, I originally had somme of the smaller ones (phasing them out with the CJ's actually), the one 195LR I have left will be replaced by a CJ in the near future.


Financials:

Last weeks financials


Earnings: 3,598,000
Expenses: 2,574,000
Profit: 1,023,000
Margin: 28%



This week revenues 2,698,000, expenses of 1,843,000, profit of 854,000, which gives me a margin of 32% (still need to do weekend closing, which is about 371,000 as well as some leasing costs.




Few questions, Airbus vs Boeing. Any real difference or just preference?


Thanks for all the suggestions!

Preference, mostly.

The 739ER BGW, 738BGW and 73G BGW, however are among the most cost-effective planes throughout the entire game. What sometimes kills the A320 series are the higher acquisition costs. But both series work great, really. So do as you please!

Q400s are great, I use them up to a max of ~900km, then switch to CRJs for more rotations a day!

Last, but not least - your flights filling up out of YTZ: Check the ORS for a monopoly, raise fares, where flights are full and no competition is in sight! This might be a unique niche.

Just an update, rearranged some flights (shut down a few routes that where not performing as well as hoped), was able to free up a Q400, which will be moved to YVR in the next few days to do some short haul flights in the area (YVR - YYC, YVR - PDX, YVR - YLW, YVR - YYJ).

Next plane hoping to order will be something from Boeing for larger, longer flights.


I think I will be taking another look into YTZ, to see if it is worth having so many flights out of the airport.

Hey, here are my initial thoughts ...

First of all, I agree with most of what was said earlier. Choose either a CRJ or an EMB and add 737's or A320's (Side note - as a personal favorite I would choose the 737 series. The 700 and the 900ER are both in the same maintenance category, but the latter one can carry 50% more than the 700, so you end up with basically two very different aircraft sizes, but still have only one maint/cat.The A31x/32x series can't quite accommodate that as the A318 for examples has slightly worse performance characteristics then the similar 737-700.) I think that will help you quite a bit.

Second, if I was in your situation I would start a two hub system, YVR on the west coast and a large airport on the Eastern side ... Montreal or Toronto comes to mind. Even if it's crowded and there's a lot of competition - there's a reason for it. Both airports have a huge demand and can support quiet a lot of flights in and out. Then I would start connecting the two hubs with 737's or A320's and use the EMB/CRJ and the Dash8's for feeder flights to them That should generate a lot of traffic in your own network. Basically it's the same thing I do in New Zealand and Australia with SYD and AKL being my two hubs. It works very well.

As always, feel absolutely free to contact me in-game (I'm Tasman Flyer down under)

Good luck!

Just an update for everyone:

I have removed all flights from YTZ ( mostl flights where either only breaking even or making margins of 10%).

My most profitable route for YTZ was to Halifax. After adding YHZ to YYZ flights, my routes to YTZ seemed to decline.

I am getting rid of the two Q300's, and will be usin the deposits from them towards larger Boeings.

Still going to wait a bit before trading the Emb for a CJ. But it will happen.

YVR now has flights to Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Portland, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, as well as a few smaller destinations. Next route will definitely be a dedicated plane for YVR to YYZ.

Hi There,

I agree with the given advice, and am happy to see you're putting it into good use.

Let's talk about WAVES. As you are operating on a hub it is important for you to grab passengers and distribute them all around Canada. Victoria for instance is unlikely to see services to Saskatoon or Halifax but hey you could offer them straight out of YVR.

The most important thing is to determine waves, 2, 3 or 4. Given Canada is rather large and distances are great, a 4 wave strategy would be a no-go. It would mean you planes working a 4x daily rotation. A 3x daily rotation is much better manageable. As Canada covers quite a large distance this way have on average 7 to 8hrs rotation time for a flight.
What could work for you is a set-up like:
Arrive before 5:45 - Depart from 7:00
Arrive before 12:45 - Depart from 14:00
Arrive before 21:45 - Depart from 23:00

Once your network grows you can start with adding subwaves in between for your commuter and feeder flights adding more capacity to your network.

Another example is that when alliance members will connect with you, you immediately get more passengers on a lot of flights instead of just a few.

Once I get hold of a 777-200LR I will consider flying into YVR that way SE-Asia and Canada will be conected, that will be a process of several weeks though.

Waves are an extremely good idea. The one thing you need to pay attention with here is you'll probably be dealing with more than one hub. Canada's simply too big with no airport strong enough in the middle to support a single-hub operation.

Let's say you keep your primary hub at YVR. Here's a few pointers I think you'll find useful.

1) The vast majority of flights will be east of YVR (until you grow significantly) and hence you'll end with an early night at your base in terms of arrivals.
2) You have a huge market just south of you along the west coast of the US.
3) Prepare for non-hub maintenance schedules. (I'll explain)

Taking those into consideration, you'll probably want to start with an early day, say just around 6am. This means that your aircraft won't reach its destination until around at least 9am local time. Your last departures will probably be just around midnight local time (say, from Toronto), which puts arrivals in at 1 or 2am Pacific. Now, this means that you can easily run overnight redeye flights: depart west coast later at night, arrive early in the morning in the eastern timezones.

Play around with this a little and you'll soon find they fit in quite nicely in terms of scheduling. Here's a suggestion and a sample you might follow:

All times Pacific.
(1) Departures from YVR at 0600 to the east. Coincide with (early) morning departures from the east, landing at around 8am local.
(2) Departures from YVR at 1000 to the south (US wave 1). Coincide with morning US arrivals at around 11am local.
(3) Departures to all destinations at 1300, with afternoon arrivals around this time as well.
(4) Departures to the south at 1700. Let your eastern jets who did overnight flights get maintained in the afternoon.
(5) Have regional/US feeders from the south and nearby come in for the last waves out at around 1700-1800.
(6) Last US/regional outbound flights at 2000.
(7) Departures to the east at 2200 onwards for red-eye, arriving in the morning eastern times.

This means that you might have to have aircraft get maintained elsewhere. AS doesn't care where your aircraft are maintained, so you don't need to worry about that either. Remember - a just breakeven maintenance schedule (~100%) doesn't guarantee more money. The waves will work wonders for you. I'm currently hovering at around just 60% direct purchases at my hub in HKG, which means over 40% of passengers at HKG are connecting passengers. Same person = better loads = more money!

Hope that helps! By all means feel free to ask questions/complaints!

great explanation, giz .

And: Of course he's right . Despite of working with one discrete wave only, then shattering flights all over, as rapidly and at the highest feasible frequencies, I am also feeling the connecting passenger effect. MAD is down to only 47% of direct connections for castillair mainline (37% internal connex, 16% external, including castillair bravo and tango), castillair bravo has 60%(!) connecting passengers at MAD. castillair tango would effectively cease to exist w/o transfer possibilities, with 68% passengers being fed from outside connections.

Hey! Just wanted to say thanks again for all the advice everyone!



Most of my flights I tend to start around 7am, I think over time I will be moving some of those flights to 6-6:30 start times for my YVR hub.

Right now from YEG, just under 80% of my flights are direct.

As I start to expand south into the US I will keep in mind about waves and try to match up flight times accordingly.


Thanks Again!

I have an opposite experience
This week only 23% of the flights from/to PRG
are direct. Although I'm running out of slots ;(
so, basically, one of my waves already completed.

Well, that's exactly the experience we were talking about .

What you can deduce from this, is the fact geography becomes more important than the size of your hub's airport, after you have reached a certain critical mass.

Just placed an order for a 737-700. So YVR to YYZ will be starting in the next few days.

Update for YVR,

Departures to:
Edmonton
8:05
10:05
12:55
13:30

Calgary
7:15
9:55
18:50
20:30

Portland
15:00
22:10

Toronto
6:00
17:00

Saskatoon
7:05
14:45

Winnipeg
11:55
18:30

Kelowna
12:05

Victoria
23:40

Will be adding more destinations shortly. No longer flying out of YHZ (Halifax), to concentrate on expanding at YVR.

Hello again,

as promised we re-evaluated your application. We are very pleased with the communication and appreciate the input you have given us over the last weeks. Your airline has grown constantly, so we are pleased to announce that your trail membership is now a full membership, effectively now. Congratulations!

We will grant you the rights to the tempelhof section, please feel free to have a look around, and open a thread in the member section of the forum about your airline to keep us informed about your planes and updates.

Cheers zwirnie