Leasing, buying & ordering covers how to get an aircraft and Cabins covers how to fit one out. This page is the step before both: deciding which type belongs on your network at all.
Start from the sector, not the aircraft#
The question is never "what is the best aircraft". It is "what does this route need, and what will still be true of it in six months". Work from the sectors you intend to fly:
- How far is the longest leg? Range has to cover it with the payload you actually intend to carry, not the brochure maximum. Past a type's full-payload range the game trims sellable seats on that leg, falling toward zero at the absolute maximum. A type that technically reaches your destination may arrive with a cabin it cannot fill.
- How much demand is there per departure? Frequency is often worth more to passengers than size. Two daily departures on a smaller type usually beat one on a larger one, because timing is one of the things passengers weigh.
- How short is the shortest leg? Airframes age by cycles as well as hours, and a type flown on very short sectors accumulates cycles quickly.
Bigger is not safer#
The most expensive early mistake in this genre is buying capacity ahead of demand. An aircraft's costs arrive whether or not the seats sell: rent or capital, maintenance reserves per flight hour, crew, and the fees of every movement. Empty seats do not become cheaper because you own them.
The failure mode looks like this: a large aircraft is bought for a route that "will grow", it flies at a load factor that would be healthy on a smaller type, the fixed costs land every week regardless, and the airline is out of cash before the route matures. Size up when the flights you already run are spilling passengers, not in anticipation.
Fleet commonality#
Every additional type in your fleet carries an overhead. Maintenance is organised by type, spare capacity does not transfer between types, and a reserve aircraft can only cover a flight it is actually able to fly. Two types that each do a job well are usually better than four that each do one job perfectly. See Reserves & substitution.
This is why real airlines run fleets that look boringly repetitive. The same logic applies here, and it applies harder to small airlines, because a single-type operator can cover any flight with any tail.
Reading the individual airframe#
Once the type is decided, the specific airframe still matters, and none of it is hidden. Every listing shows registration, age, total hours and cycles, cabin layout, location, owner, condition, time since heavy check and an appraisal.
Two traps worth naming:
- A cheap airframe with a heavy check falling due is not cheap. The check will ground it for real time and bill you for the privilege. Read the clock before the price.
- Condition below the reliability threshold is a running cost, not a discount. Below the threshold (60 by default) departures start risking technical cancellation, and cancellations cost compensation and reputation. See Maintenance & heavy checks.
Where it will be when you sign#
A leased or bought tail is handed over where it currently parks, which may be nowhere near your base. Positioning it is your problem and your cost, and on a large map it can be a long flight with fuel stops. Factor it in before you commit to the aircraft that happens to be cheapest.
Cabin fit comes after#
The type sets a floor-space budget; the layout you fit inside it decides what you can sell. Factory-fresh aircraft arrive dense and all-economy, while used and leased metal keeps whatever it wears, so check the layout before planning a premium network around a tail. See Cabins.