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Which plane to buy? The best ones.

By MKK

Let's finish the doubt of choosing planes in the game once for all.

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Created by

MKK
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Category: Crafting, Gameplay Basics, Secrets

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

22 Mar, 2020 @ 3:35am

30 Apr, 2021 @ 6:36pm

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Guide Index

Overview

The planes in Airline Tycoon

The best plane

Some suspect on second-hand plane

Comments

The planes in Airline Tycoon

There are totally 26 plane models in the game with different passenger capability, range, speed and kerosene consumption. All these information are available in the office/computer or in plane broker:

After we have some money, we start to wonder which model we should buy to minimize the cost - some planes eat lots lots of oil. So I calculated the kerosene cost versus passenger load of each plane per day and get to know which one is the best.

I assume that a plane flies for 24 hours per day for a route. It turns out that the time and route is not important - as long as the route is shorter than the range of that plane. Then I calculated the total mileage it can fly, total kerosene consumption and passenger number it carries in 24 hours.

The best plane

In the passenger number versus kerosene consumption diagram, the model closer to the upper-left corner, the better it will be - you can carry more passenger with less kerosene and earn more from those people.

So here is the result:

And the conclusion is simple: buy B773, or A300 if you want a cheaper one. The price of B763 is similar to A300, so it is another good model. Other models are surely worse than these three so forgot them.....

This is actually not something I expected: you have a few models doing a much better job in earning profit, then why we still have so many different kinds of planes flying in the sky? Then I took the real data from Wikipedia and make the similar diagram for what we are actually using:

This is more reasonable: if you want more passengers in a plane, use the larger one and pay more for the kerosene.

Some suspect on second-hand plane

I suspect the price of the second plane is related with their durable percentage. It seems that the double of the ratio of the price in Museum and plane broker is close to the durable percentage but not exactly right (or I am simply wrong).

Also if you find a good plane in the Museum, have bought it and you still have money, don't go away - it will appear again a little bit later. Then you can establish a fleet of those planes.

9 Comments

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bindi 25 Jul, 2023 @ 1:03pm

My plane rank for routes:
1. A300
2. 767-300 ER
3. 777-300
4. Custom plane

The rest are not worth to buy.

747-400 (not the domestic one) is exceptional because it has quite distance for few important routes. Not worth to use in the beginning.

Bit0110 28 Feb, 2022 @ 2:58am

Another, but expensive option for endgame is a custom plane by using the biggest hull, three-part fin, jet nose and big triangle wings with two of those flat double jet engines. It should have the performance characteristics: 600 passengers, fuel/day 10,950 l/d, speed 1,319 km/h, a range of 14,509 km and costs 82,000,000. You basically outmatch all your opponents with that on duty flights.

Bit0110 28 Feb, 2022 @ 2:58am

Interesting conclusion. I basically like to go with 767-300 ER, A 300 and the 777-300. You always have to consider fuel per day because of the unsteady market prices for kerosene. It's essential if you don't bother to buy kerosene from the Arabs at its lowest price. Moreover the museum planes are only good if the plane costs half the price of a new one. They're around 80% then. Otherwise the planes are so run down that the costs to repair them properly exeeds your bank account. Planes like the 757-300 or an A 310 or even a 737-400/800 are good for smaller routes. All planes have a good price-performance ratio.

JSA274 7 Aug, 2021 @ 3:48pm

[PART 1] Informative guide, I always aim for standardised B763 or Airbus A300/A310 when the museum obliges. I usually get 3 or 4 before I risk digging into the refurb/repair funds to get them back into service.

The graphs showing metrics like fuel/day and passengers/day is not all that useful, without knowing the route its working - it will differ if on a long haul v commuter route. I take it that assumes the plane is working 24/7 solidly which is not practical particularly for a used plane which will lose a few % points without some planned downtime. Specific metrics like gallons/hr is useful if you can crunch it with the speed and distance and divide by pax to get a fuel consumption/passenger km value.

JSA274 7 Aug, 2021 @ 3:39pm

[PART 2] I also find the first class complement on any plane is a waste of time - it occupies 2x the space of standard class, and is usually 2x the fare so regardless of the 1st/standard accommodation ratio the profit is the same - unless you tweak the fare for first class so the ratio for first:standard is >2.0, but that could hurt the passenger numbers if they think it's too expensive (I've never tried TBH).

I haven't really paid any attention to the price v percentage condition of used planes, I'm usually so relieved to see one I want I just grab it before a rival can! It's so tedious sitting through (game speed) weeks of Russian junk and the winged breadbin Gulfstreams passing through the museum...

anthonyjohnadlington 4 May, 2021 @ 7:40pm

Thanks again with the gates i always try to get a route from two other airports so i never worry about the gates i think is a bug but works for me

Wakko 4 May, 2021 @ 2:35pm

#PART 2#

There's also another consideration that might come into play; that is, gate usage.
For short route flights with high passenger demands - a less efficient - higher capacity plane, would probably be worth it if your gate(s) are constantly busy.
The highest throughput planes are: 744D and 773 at the top, with 744 and A300 slightly behind.
The 773 would probably the best choice for this purpose, as it has considerably higher throughput over 744 and A300, and a better mileage than the 744D.

(Note that I've truncated Boeing model names in this post, i.e. 744D = 747-400 Domestic, etc)

Those are my thoughts on airplane selection.
Now I should probably get around to playing this game, and not just mess around with sheets and numbers... >_>

- Wakko

Wakko 4 May, 2021 @ 2:34pm

I made this: Airplanes sheet [docs.google.com]

A list of all the planes and their throughput and efficiency, based on the data from the wiki [airlinetycoon.fandom.com] - inspired by your guide.

I prefer a sorted list using a single value over interpreting a diagram and basically "guessing" which is more efficient :P
Though in the end, the conclusion is the same, A300 and 763 is king, with A310 and 773 as pretty decent runner-ups.

This is of course assuming fully loaded planes on routes.
For fixed passenger orders, where you won't be able to fill all the seats, other planes with better mileage will be more efficient.

#PART 1#

anthonyjohnadlington 25 Mar, 2021 @ 11:50pm

Wow love it

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