Operating Costs

[Unknown98]

Each aircraft you own or lease now has an Hourly Operating Cost. This has replaced weekly maintenance and insurance costs. Fuel cost and lease cost are not included in the operating cost.

Operating cost depends on two factors - Aircraft type and number of cycles. Larger and more heavily used aircraft have a higher operating cost.

Operating cost is deducted from each flight, just like fuel cost, and it is shown on the flight tracker page as well as the flight history page. You can see your aircraft's operating cost on the aircraft details page, by going to your fleet overview and then clicking on the aircraft registration number.

You will no longer be charged for maintenance and insurance each Friday. I have removed all upcoming transactions for maintenance and insurance. If a flight was scheduled prior to operating cost being implemented, then there will be no operating cost for that flight. You will need to wait for your flights to re-schedule before you will see operating costs show up.

This change, while simple, will drastically reduce profit margins. Routes that have been profitable before, may no longer be profitable. Expect to have to adjust a few things in order to stabilize and maintain your profit margin. This change was implemented because profit margins were exceptionally high, unrealistically so, in the range of 50-80%. Simply put, the game was too easy. 

For those of you interested in the formula: Hourly Operating Cost = (60 * Max Seats)+(0.15 * Cycles)

Let's see how this plays out, the formula may need to be adjusted but that is the wonderful thing about having an hourly operating cost, it's very easily adjusted, unlike the weekly maintenance & insurance was.

[palmertae]

Maybe you can also add a factor to the formula where the costs decrease slightly for airlines that own a large number of that family type, or even ONLY that family type as I think it's realistic for their operating costs be a tad lower than airlines with multiple aircraft families? (one of the reasons why LCCs are successful)

[sw889432]

RIP regional jets and other high cycle flights.

[Unknown98]

Maybe you can also add a factor to the formula where the costs decrease slightly for airlines that own a large number of that family type, or even ONLY that family type as I think it's realistic for their operating costs be a tad lower than airlines with multiple aircraft families? (one of the reasons why LCCs are successful)

Good point, that should be worked into the formula somehow.

[Carde]

Liking it already, also purchased a super vc10 from the market and you can still be profitable with 50 year old jets and my regional will just shrug these costs off.

[Unknown98]

What is covered in the operating cost:
Taxes (multitude of taxes - see video)
Per-flight maintenance (parts, inspections, restoration, tools, equipment, etc)
Employee Benefits
Insurance (all types - liability, hull loss, etc)
Misc Costs - Aircraft storage, parking fees, equipment rentals, etc
Misc payroll that does not have it's own payroll category
In-flight Service & Entertainment costs

What is NOT covered in the operating cost:
Airport Landing Fees
Flight Crew & Cabin Crew Payroll
Maintenance Labor - Mechanics payroll
Other Payroll - Executives, Corporate, CSA, Ramp Agents
Overhead Costs - Travel costs, office equipment, legal fees, utilities and so on

Good video by Wendover Productions:



Now maybe some of this can be changed. Perhaps I need another "Misc Payroll" category instead of including it in the operating costs. Perhaps employee benefits need to be separate. When IFE and IFS is implemented, those will be separated out into their own cost category.

[gaff85]

Liking the way it is being calculated, however for airlines that have leased older aircraft, there must be a way to off load them now that they are being penalized for flying them

[Stebah]

I do like this new system but it's not really logical if I my say so. It's true that the operating costs should have been higher, I mean on average I earned around 100 to 120 million a day (that's with a fleet of over 100 planes). But having just looked at the new operating costs of my A380 something caught my attention.

On a 15 hour flight, the operating cost is now over 830.000 USD, deducted from the total flight time this gets you at around 55.000 USD per hour. In my experience at different airlines and companies (not operating the A380 but that's not the point) no single airline would operate a plane if the costs were that high per hour. For example and I know this one, the Boeing 747-400 costs around 25.000 USD per hour (that's an average from several companies). If it would cost 30K more to operate an A380 it wouldn't have sold a single copy. 

I know that this is a game, and yes operating costs are to low. Well before the update, now they are to high. The new system is fun, but in my opinion it shouldn't be added until the data is correct. I know that you use estimates Unk, but there are several sources that will get you close to the real operating costs of different planes. With the average of those you can make an average for all the planes we use, but as of now it's just unrealistic. 

I will try to look for some public sources on the operating costs of different planes, or I could just file this in as a project for college
Don't mean to come over as a know it all dick, but the operating costs formula as it is now isn't correct.

[Squigi1]

I’m fine with the whole operating costs feature but it is too high being it doesn’t include fuel to charter a 737-800 with just drinks costs 20k an hour in an all coach configuration but the 20k an hour includes everything that is in it already but also includes fuel cost I can tell you all about hourly cost of a 737-800 but for the rest I’d say ask Steven about the info he has it should be a good basis

Can’t lie still love the game tho Unk

[Unknown98]

Not coming across as a dick at all lol, I'm open to change. The formula is simple to change. I just want to make sure it's positive change. I'll do some math and see what else I can come up with.

Should the production year have an effect on operating cost as well? As time goes on engineering and manufacturing processes improve and aircraft continue to get more efficient. I mean the 787-8 in theory should be more cost-effective than the 767-300, but with this current formula they are essentially the same to operate (assuming same number of cycles).