Help centre · For airline staff

Seasonal fares and the price advisor

With Seasonal fares on, ticket prices and demand change with the time of year, just like a real airline's. It's all virtual money: nothing is paid.

Turn it on under Staff → Airline settings → Optional features → Seasonal fares (it needs the finances on), then open Staff → Money → Fare seasons.

Seasons

A season has a name, the days it runs (written as MM-DD, so 06-20 is 20 June), a fare factor and a demand factor. It comes back every year, and it can run across the new year (18 Dec to 7 Jan). Fare × 1.25 sells tickets 25% dearer, and demand × 1.15 fills 15% more seats.

Add the usual seasons adds five common ones (low season, Easter, summer peak, autumn shoulder, Christmas and New Year), which you can then change as you like.

To make a season apply to only some routes, give it a tag, for example ski or beach, and add the same tag to those routes. The first season that matches a day and a route counts.

How a flight is priced

A flight is priced in the season of the day it was filed:

Fare: your fare (base fare plus fare per nm, in Settings) × the season's fare factor.
Passengers: the usual load × the season's demand × how your price compares with the market. The demand reaction decides how much price matters: 0 means not at all, and 0.8 means a fare 10% above the market sells about 8% fewer seats. A cheaper fare sells more.
Events: your events to or from an airport add extra demand on that day's flights there (15% by default).
Last seats sell dearer: a full flight's average fare is up to 10% higher, and an empty one's up to 10% lower.
Fuel index (optional): fuel costs move a little each month, between ×0.80 and ×1.25. The index is the same for every airline, and Finances shows this month's.

When the pilot's flight plan has passengers, those are the passengers paid for.

Each flight's finance lines show its fare, its season and the fuel index. If a flight is corrected later, it keeps them, so changing your seasons never re-prices flights that are already booked.

Price changes

Under Price changes, set a new base fare and fare per nm from a chosen day. Flights filed from that day use it, with the seasons on top. A change starts tomorrow at the earliest, so flights already filed keep their price. The changes stay as your price history: one that hasn't started can be taken back, one that has started can't. Before your first change, the base fare and fare per nm in Settings are used.

Cabin classes

Under Cabin classes, give each aircraft type in your fleet a share of premium and business seats (up to 50% each and 80% together), and say how much dearer each class sells than economy. The type's flights then sell at a higher average fare: with 10% business at × 3, it's 20% higher. Demand is still measured on the economy fare, so the number of passengers doesn't change. Like a price change, a save starts tomorrow and the earlier classes are kept, so each flight gets the classes of the day it was filed, even when it's accepted later. The flight's finance line shows the cabin factor, and flights already booked keep their fares.

The price advisor

Pick a route and a day. The advisor then shows the passengers, ticket revenue and a rough profit at several fares, marks the fare you charge now and the one that earns the most. Use it to find the best price for each season.

Results by route lists the most profitable city pairs of the last 90 days.

Pilots see the season and the fuel index on Airline → Finances, and with Expected loads on, the booking page shows the season's expected passengers.