Air Tycoon 3

Hello to all Air Tycoon Lovers.

Perhaps the revenue stream for our wish lists is drying up. How about Air Tycoon 3?

I have read so many good ideas from some die hard Air Tycoon fans like myself. I was impressed with Air Tycoon 1, and Air Tycoon 2 was a major improvement. Go back and play the first one again to remember how big of a step the second made.

Airline Tycoon remains my go to time waster.... but it does not take long to master these games and it has become very predictable. These days I open a new airline usually about 20 years after starting the previous and get more enjoyment from starting a monoply airline 20 years in the future than competing with the stupid AI anymore... When I go completion mode, I cycle through regional airline, low-cost carrier, and flag carrier/legacy airline strategies and cycle through different regions to maintain interest.

...Time for Air Tycoon 3! Here is my imagination of what could be...

Operational Expenses:

Some operational costs will be managed on a per route basis; with global editing ability. Contributing costs come from factors outlined by each aircraft type. When purchasing aircraft there would be a spec sheet outlining fuel performance, maintenance cost, and crew required. Marketing costs will have global and route factors. In the route window, there is a marketing tab which offers a market study (more on this below) and advertising options. Global costs such as administration, company-wide marketing, and customer service remain the same as AT2. Employment is managed for flight crew personnel and maintenance staff; all others are factored into administration. Flight and maintenance crew demands are determined by the accumulation of each aircraft's specific requirements. Automatically increasing employment to meet demand is an option which adds to the administrative expense.

Company vs Business:

Having multiple hubs per city and multiple brands per company seems to be a popular request. It's not that hard to imagine. In AT2 you are able to cycle through each company in a view only mode; but with Air Tycoon 3, some of these companies may belong to you. There is a company management window that allows you to transfer unused aircraft and money as well as an option to merge a subsidiary with the main company. You may open a new company or buy one that is for sale.

Aircraft:

Now as mentioned before, there will be an aircraft cost spec sheet. Smaller aircraft can operate at a lower cost than the heavies, but require multiple aircraft to maximize occupancy. Maintenance costs will rise with aircraft age. There will be eras and your airline will (optionally) begin in the past with aircraft such as DC8, B707, etc. Aircraft will improve in all areas of efficiency with each era. There will be different types of aircraft capabilities, simplified as major and minor. Major aircraft are only capable of operating out of international airports, where as minor aircraft may serve both regional and international airports but have smaller capacities and less range. There are all kinds of new aircraft from efficient turbo props like the Dash8 and ATR series to additional NextGen's like the A350, MRJ, C919, etc. There are also business / first class only options like the Global Express, G650, Falcon 7x, BBJ, etc.

Cities:

There are a lot more cities in AT3... maybe even your home town. Most cities are classified as regional only, but the cities you remember from AT2 are all international capable. This does not mean that a city pair separated by a border, yet only a few hundred miles, cannot be served by smaller aircraft. The city type merely permits 'major' aircraft or it does not.

There is now a number of maximum flights per day at a given city... this is okay though because a city will eventually upgrade its capability with growth. Cities can be persuaded to upgrade and/or reserve a certain percentage of flights for your company. A city which began as regional only may even be persuaded to upgrade to accommodate major aircraft. Now you may find it difficult to push out a competitor who is well established at an airport without bribing the city, and adversely you can prevent an easy take over of your main base.

Marketing Study:

Buy a company wide study of each route at a reduced rate, or buy it for the route in question. The marketing study provides information about route demand - route to route demand as well as the extremely variable '% of demand achievable' (explained below).

Class Expectations:

Economy class expects the cheapest ticket without compromise... They will fly on a rusty DC3 (with tap water at a cost of $2) if the price is right. Unless of course your rusty DC3s are not falling out of the sky, which may cost more to ensure than profit may provide as time goes on.

Business class wants to feel as executive as their bosses budget will allow... They are savvy in their knowledge of aircraft comfort, airline offerings, and a terminal lounge when such amenities are available. Still they cannot break budget even with these high expectations so squeezing out their dollar may be the most competitive. This class is hard to call sometimes because they may choose and economy seat with A+ service, perhaps there is a corporate jet running the same service with the bonus of no economy seats, or they found the business class seats on a trusted airline.

First class puts money last. Beyond always being drawn towards the most exclusive experience, the expectation of a flawless record of safety is typically a must. These customers are not drawn to the $999 first class seating available on JoeBlow Air's DC10 in the 21st century; that is a business class ticket labeled as 'first class'. It could be a fair fight for an international airline's first class, and an all first class corporate jet operated by a local company...

If this whole class thing seems a little hard to capture with software algorithms, it shouldn't. Base the demand on the fixed price ranges... The price of a ticket ranges from the lowest economical seat ticket price to the highest first class ticket price. Separate this price into three the three tiers of demand. Each tier has a set of factors (outlined above) which contribute to a percentage of achievable demand. For example: if the demand for a route is established at 1000 economical-class passengers per week, you could only achieve a max of 800 pax if your ability to meet the factors for the economical class was only 80%. This also means that you could have 120% ability in the economy class and draw 1200 pax per week on that route...



I cannot wait for AT3!!!


P.S.

Of course many of these ideas have been discussed previously and many other other good ideas deserve recognition: sort by options such as distance and aircraft type for example... I am sure AT3 will be amazing, just make it already and take our money.

I understand that my requests may bring a little heat from massive companies like Boeing and EADS if they feel their products are unfairly represented... but I must say that I doubt that simply because no actual decision maker will contribute any factors from Air Tycoon 3 (or 2 for that matter) in the purchase of an aircraft.

The game may become too complicated for some users... but I must say that these users were the same ones who bought AT2, found it difficult and put it down... You still have their money. They bought it because raving fans like me reviewed positively, not because of it's simplicity... If you can achieve satisfaction from this user group with AT3, you will get the sales you deserve even though most users will be challenged more than they prefer.