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Virtual airlines: Difference between revisions
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===Underpopulation=== | ===Underpopulation=== | ||
So far, a mere estimate of one hundred people use the FlightGear multiplayer community. Despite this, more and more virtual airlines are emerging and cannot collect as many people as it wishes. Theories of "college students wanting power" and other ideas have been brought up several times inside the FlightGear forum, but has not been dealt with yet in the present. The underpopulation and overorganization issue has made the multiplayer networks confusing to use, possibly scaring users away to other simulators such as X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator, where virtual airlines and multiplayer services are more organized and population-managed. Due to underpopulation, some airlines were forced to close due to hardship of | So far, a mere estimate of one hundred people use the FlightGear multiplayer community. Despite this, more and more virtual airlines are emerging and cannot collect as many people as it wishes. Theories of "college students wanting power" and other ideas have been brought up several times inside the FlightGear forum, but has not been dealt with yet in the present. The underpopulation and overorganization issue has made the multiplayer networks confusing to use, possibly scaring users away to other simulators such as X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator, where virtual airlines and multiplayer services are more organized and population-managed. Due to underpopulation, some airlines were forced to close due to hardship of management, including former major airline Euroair. | ||
'''Suggestions to address the underpopulation issue:''' | '''Suggestions to address the underpopulation issue:''' | ||
* Administration and management should be carefully controlled. For instance promoting ranks amongst members. Another management idea is to keep people in charge of certain sectors of the airline, for instance: route management, fleet management, advertising management, application/ | * Administration and management should be carefully controlled. For instance promoting ranks amongst members. Another management idea is to keep people in charge of certain sectors of the airline, for instance: route management, fleet management, advertising management, application/enrollment management, or whatever else is felt required for an airline. Over-administration is a big issue; In the past the main problem has been that the only people involved in a virtual airline was the creators, and one or two in-active users who didn't bother recruiting or flying- i.e. it was a "ghost airline" and nothing more. It is very important that the airline is not inundated with administrators and actually has a few pilots. | ||
* Fleet size should be kept to the bare minimum, and suited to their routes and serving airports. Real life operators typically use a small fleet size to suit their operations. Ryanair for example operates a total of 146 Boeing 737-800's, as their only aircraft type. This suits their short-haul European destinations and therefore do not require additional fleet models. | * Fleet size should be kept to the bare minimum, and suited to their routes and serving airports. Real life operators typically use a small fleet size to suit their operations. Ryanair for example operates a total of 146 Boeing 737-800's, as their only aircraft type. This suits their short-haul European destinations and therefore do not require additional fleet models. | ||
* Routes should be also kept to a minimum, accurately maintained, well informed and carefully chosen. A rough guideline would be about five pilots for every route, so an airline with 15 pilots would be suited to an airline with three routes. Once an airline grows rapidly, routes can expand and increase when necessary (or decrease if you lose pilots), which is all part of the fun of expanding a network carefully and sufficiently. Try not to be over-enthusiastic and create a network of say 20 routes when you only have a small number of some 6 pilots, for instance. | * Routes should be also kept to a minimum, accurately maintained, well informed and carefully chosen. A rough guideline would be about five pilots for every route, so an airline with 15 pilots would be suited to an airline with three routes. Once an airline grows rapidly, routes can expand and increase when necessary (or decrease if you lose pilots), which is all part of the fun of expanding a network carefully and sufficiently. Try not to be over-enthusiastic and create a network of say 20 routes when you only have a small number of some 6 pilots, for instance. | ||
* Airports should be chosen for their location, and to suit the fleet using it. Using a large amount of airport's clustered together in a small region is not a good idea, as it would (in real life) mean high airport charges, when airports should be shared and codeshared. | * Airports should be chosen for their location, and to suit the fleet using it. Using a large amount of airport's clustered together in a small region is not a good idea, as it would (in real life) mean high airport charges, when airports should be shared and codeshared. | ||
* Hub airports should not be used too often, 1 hub is suitable and looks better over the Multiplayer servers, if it is well used. ATC should be used at the hub airport, at least. This should be a well- | * Hub airports should not be used too often, 1 hub is suitable and looks better over the Multiplayer servers, if it is well used. ATC should be used at the hub airport, at least. This should be a well-modeled base for your flights. | ||
* The website should contain detailed information, accurate maps, Weather data, Navigation data, Airport details, Fleet and suitably house community discussions. It should of course have simple instructions on how to join your airline, as well as an up-to-date list of pilots. It should be intended to attract as many budding pilots as possible! | * The website should contain detailed information, accurate maps, Weather data, Navigation data, Airport details, Fleet and suitably house community discussions. It should of course have simple instructions on how to join your airline, as well as an up-to-date list of pilots. It should be intended to attract as many budding pilots as possible! | ||