Ticket prices

General AVIATION RELATED chatter

Moderator: FSAirlines Staff

Post Reply
jato0072
Ticket Agent
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:20 pm

Ticket prices

Post by jato0072 » Mon May 03, 2021 5:00 pm

Can someone summarize the ticket price value. How does raising or lowering the price change the FSA gameplay dynamics? How high can I set the price before I incur some kind of penalty?

Thanks.
Image

jato0072
Ticket Agent
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:20 pm

Re: Ticket prices

Post by jato0072 » Mon May 03, 2021 9:44 pm

I found these threads:

viewtopic.php?t=9435

viewtopic.php?t=2963

viewtopic.php?t=5036

It looks like I will just have use trial and error. If anyone has any pro tips, please comment.

Thanks. :)
Image

User avatar
joefremont
FSAirlines Developer
Posts: 3690
Joined: Tue May 16, 2006 5:46 am
Location: KSFO

Re: Ticket prices

Post by joefremont » Tue May 04, 2021 3:58 pm

I have been a bit reluctant to answer as I don't want to give away too much of the secret sauce and feel I keep repeating myself, but in general terms here how it works.

The system first tries to figure out how many people want to fly between point A and B, it looks at the population around the two airports and the distance between them and tries to calculate how many might want to fly. It includes in that number some of the population of airports that have connecting flights from the destination airport as long as there is a route established and that route has been flown in the last 30 days.

It also adds from that passenger pool, passengers that have arrived at the airport recent and subtracts those that have departed.

Once it has finally got a number it then compares your ticket price adjusted by your VA's reputation, to the standard price. I am not going to give away too much of the math but its a function that involves a curve, at 1x most of that pool will want to fly and a 2.5x almost none of them will want to fly.

The one thing that is not part of the formula is the size of your aircraft, and that is intentional. Airlines should try to get the right size aircraft for the route. If you can just fill a commuter jet on that route, using a wide body jet on the same route won't generate more passengers. Likewise between two major cities there might be enough passengers for several 747 flights a day, but if only one 737 does the route a day they can charge a lot and still get a full flight.

Part of me would like to completely redesign it around individual passengers who what to go to a specific destination, similar to packages. But its a much harder problem that packages, as there would have to be many more of them (we would need a lot more compute horse power) and passengers make there own decisions, based on your price and how close you get them to there destination they decide if they want to fly. The current system is not perfect as I think too many flights are flying with too high a price, and when I get around to revising the seat configuration system I may look into revising it.
Image
I've sworn an oath of solitude until the pestilence is purged from the lands.

jato0072
Ticket Agent
Posts: 57
Joined: Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:20 pm

Re: Ticket prices

Post by jato0072 » Tue May 04, 2021 4:40 pm

Great explanation! The model sounds like it has multiple parameters which is great. I had no idea it was that involved.

Thanks.
Image

Post Reply