Subsidies

[ALT2870]

Another follow up.

Here is my pitch for subsidies:

Start-Up:
Somewhere under airline management have option to click on saying "Start New Subsidy".

That would take you to a new page with the same options as starting a new airline minus finance options which would be on the next page.

The next page would bring you to finance options. First would be the flat rate start up fee. Along with that would be an additional cost if you start up in a foreign country. Then you can choose how you want to put money in. Is it from your other airline, or do you go with a loan? If possible, an option with both. (Maybe a limit on how much you transfer over.)

Running:
Once you create your subsidy, it's like starting fresh. No airplanes, no gates. You start over. You have the option of sending planes from the parent company if so desired for a fee. The parent company can also give more money but only so much per month. As well, the parent company gets charged a certain rate per month for the subsidy.

I feel the best way to switch between airlines would be to have a button on the top right that says "Switch Airlines" or something similar. That drops you into a page where you can choose the airline.

Hope that makes sense.

[Sora]

Makes a lot of sense, if you ask me.

Probably not an option for what I have in mind for myself, BUT you gotta think of all the players, right? And if it's possible to implement in some way, then please do have it added to the game.

[Unknown98]

It will be quite a task but I think I can make it work.

Thing is I don’t want to make up arbitrary numbers such as “oh a subsidiary will cost a fee of 50 million”. I want anything you pay to go towards something. I like pretty much everything you have listed here though, Alt.

[khush37]

Would there be a limit on how many subsidiaries someone can have, and if so how much would it be?

[Tesla]

Would there be a limit on how many subsidiaries someone can have, and if so how much would it be?

Old post I know

I doubt there will be much of a limit seeing how far Norwegian is taking subsidiaries in the real world. They have seperate subsidiaries for the UK, Norway, long haul, Argentina and in future the USA as well. It's almost taking the mick, but it is clever strategy on their part. I think it will become a tricky one to implement, but it can certainly be done.

[Unknown98]

I'm not sure really. Ideally the limit would be imposed naturally by financial means or the amount of time it would take to manage so many subsidiaries; at some point I think it would become too much to keep track of if you had 6, 8, 10 subsidiaries.

[USA]

It would be fairly expensive the more you have. For each operating certificate (operating carrier) at least in the US you’re required to have certain departments/groups duplicated and they’re not allowed to work/assist each other. Theoretically you could have 2 guys doing the same job for 2 different carriers sitting next to each other but they can’t (officially at least) exchange work, help each other, etc. In practice they wouldn’t even be allowed to be in the same room depending on which duplicated group they were with but still a fun fact

[POTKC]

Old thread, but I got reminded of it by the new issue tracker post. Some suggestions on how this may work:

1. There should be a startup fee + extra fees, of course for starting in a new country is an example, but also contract negotiations and other miscellaneous items such as creating new infrastructure.
   
2. There should not be a limit to how much the parent airline can invest if the subsidiary is based in the same country as the parent. There is no reason for this.
   
3. If the subsidiary is in a different country, a minimum of 51% of the initial startup capital has to be provided with loans, or even investment from other airlines if that is possible (would be an interesting option but not sure if everyone agrees). This would simulate the regulations in most countries that airlines cannot be owned over 49% by a foreign investor.
   
4. Aircraft should be able to be transferred from the parent to the subsidiary (and back, if necessary), either in return for payment of any sum (that you can choose) or for free, but in both cases a small fee (maximum of a million probably) should be applied. There is no need for going overboard and putting the fee at like 20% of the aircraft's value.
   
5. There should, of course, be rules for capital transfers between the companies: There has to be a limit on how much the parent can transfer to the subsidiary in one go. Subsidiaries should be able to transfer unlimited amounts back to the parents - perhaps there can even be a way to send some percentage of bank balance at the end of each week/month automatically, or assign a percentage of the profit from each flight to be counted as an extra cost in addition to fuel, maintenance, etc and be sent to the parent company.
   
6. Credit rating of the subsidiary should be independent of the parent. The parent company's credit rating should be slightly influenced by the credit rating of the subsidiary, so if the subsidiary is at CCC, it pulls down the rating of the parent slightly.
   
7. I am not sure how transferring leased aircraft between companies would work. Since that is both dependent on the credit rating and influences in, it might get too complicated.
   

[Dazwalsh]

Or how about the subsidiary is able to loan the money from the parent as if it was a brand new airline, up to 80 million like the game presets and starts fresh with a CCC+ credit rating and new cost base.

Transferring of assets would be tricky to implement without that system being abused. It would be nice for aircraft wholely owned by the prent to be given to the subsidiary. Bulk ordering for the group of airlines would be a good feature to avail of discounts.

I do like the idea of the buttton at the top to switch between the two airlines. Perhaps listing the subsidiary’s as logos and liveries underneath the parent images too would be cool. Clicking on that would bring you to the airine overview for that airline.

I am excited for the subsidiary feature cant wait

[Zortan]

I believe it's called a Subsidiary not a Subsidy. Just a small thing

However, I think this would be very smart, because I want to be able to run all my airlines at once - which would be challenging but fun - then I can also see how effective each of my brands are.