Routes and fares

Choosing a route

The route planner estimates any route before you open it: passengers, load, revenue, costs and profit a week for your aircraft and timetable, against everyone already flying it. Its suggestions rank the best short and medium routes for the season you are in.

Where a destination has an intelligence report (about 170 cities and destinations, every Norwegian airport among them), the planner shows it in brief: why people fly there, when, and who they are. The full report, on the airport's page, adds the events, the juicy facts, what to watch out for and a route playbook, beside the game's own figures for the airport (catchment, business share, slots, curfew, fees and the year's demand).

Demand grows with the size of both cities and falls with distance. Under 500 km, trains and roads take a share (less where mountains and fjords make the trip slow). Holiday destinations draw more than their size suggests in their season.

Competition

Every route has established carriers already flying it, priced near the reference fare. As you win passengers they cut fares (to 15% below) and flights, and recover when you leave. Computer-run rivals and other players compete too.

Passengers weigh the fare, how many flights there are and when, the cabin's comfort, the airline's reputation and on-time record, and how well they know the airline in the city they start from (see Marketing in Passengers and service).

A newcomer usually has to price a little under the established carriers to fill: 85–90% of the reference fare often fills nearly every seat and earns more than the full fare would.

Seasons

The year follows the IATA seasons: summer from the last Sunday in March, winter from the last Sunday in October. Sun destinations peak in July, the Canaries and ski resorts in February, the Arctic at New Year; Christmas brings leisure travellers and empties business routes. A rotation can fly all year, one season only, or between two dates.

Connections

A return leg landing at your hub can feed another rotation's departure 45 minutes to 4 hours later, selling a connecting trip between two spokes at a through fare (10% off the two legs by default). Arrivals and departures banked into waves make more connections; the Network page suggests better departure times.

Fares

Each route has a fare per cabin. The Pricing desk shows every direction's fare level against the reference, its load and contribution, and the level the market model says earns most. Revenue management (on by default) raises and lowers the price asked with bookings: cheap early seats fill weak flights, dear late seats harvest strong ones.

Fare families (Light, Standard, Flex) and extras (bags, seats, priority) are set under Fares & extras. A Commercial Director reviews fares every Monday if you leave it to them.

Rights and slots

• Traffic rights: inside the European single aviation market (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland) its airlines fly freely. Elsewhere a flight between your country and another needs their agreement: most are open skies, some are restricted to a few designated airlines (apply on Traffic rights).
• Slots: busy airports need a slot for each take-off and landing. Rotations take free ones from the pool; at full hours you buy them. A slot not flown 80% of the time over four weeks goes back to the pool. See Slots.