Part 19: - Indecision

1961 - Indecision


Q1 1961



The cost of connecting Sydney has gone up a little since the last time I measured it. Not sure why. Either way, without the funds allocated for a plane to get us there, let alone the opening fees, they’re off the table for this year.



Oh I think you know.



Number eleven. Cash on hand could go for more, but I obey the limits of our budget. Next time, Doug. Next time.



The last Doug we sent out east found the extent of current demand in Shanghai. A little discount will get him running at capacity in no time.



Back home, another trap is closed in Uzbekistan. The home region remains secure.




Post-Sports Europe is back to business as usual. England is bountiful, France is a wasteland. This is utterly bizare, as Air’Murica’s link to Paris is doing quite well. I give them another chance to shine with a sharply discounted fare and an extra flight.



Since we’re set on moving into unfriendly territory, Veronica’s off to Japan. Up to 8 Slots in 9 Months isn’t bad for an opener. Large, underused airports like theirs are often more generous with their time. I have a good feeling about the place, so I take them all.



People still love Africa.





Holding our ground for now.

Q2 1961



The Americans are in love with this plane, almost all of their recent growth has been from piling these onto their routes.



A further Doug is only worth one more flight for THROM. Going forward, we should seek larger planes to feed it.



Some day...




Washington was a front-runner for an American hub back in the day, but with improvements in aircraft range our options have opened up. Chicago has comparable stats, five times the population, and a massive airport that's gone mostly untouched. Igor will return in 9 months, having claimed 8 of these 11 slots.



Doug



Doug Envy.



Having seen the rest of it, Tourists focus their attention on the one place in Africa worth flying to.

Cairo and Sydney also pop more slots.





Not a great turn for us, mostly from a bad business quarter. On the upside, we’re within 2,000 passengers per turn of overtaking ConAir in Asia. That’s just a bit over two Doug-Flights!

Q3 1961




At long last, the Tupolev design bureau succeeds in creating a not-completely-awful passenger plane. While still undersized and inefficient, it’s the farthest-reaching Russian plane yet. We can safely ignore it, but if we were stuck with Soviet aircraft this would be quite good news. AirMarx will appreciate a plane that pays its dues on a full load, and will have enough reach to move in on Southeast Asia.




For the most part, our opponents' agents have gone quiet. Their focus has shifted to building up their existing networks before reaching for new frontiers.



Our way is paved in Australia. All we need is a wing and a cheque.



At 5 Doug running 8 flights per week, THROM is satiated. Fares will be fine-tuned to bring us to capacity, at which point thirty thousand people per year will experience THROM.



Our snare in India endures. They’re not even selling more tickets than us anymore, at 92 fares per week against our 210.



By some miracle, the French finally grow a taste for air travel. We may make something of them yet. I hand them a spare slot in Rome that has nowhere else to go.



Our Greek flight, on the other hand, is a bit under the weather.




This is why. Indirect competition isn’t picked up by the direct-comparison feature of the UI. Fortunately, we can use the info screens to keep track of what everyone else is flying. Air’Murica is loving the 707. Those huge passenger volumes are great for the scoreboard, even if margins are far slimmer compared to prop routes.

Sharp discounts are applied to draw customers our way.



Though more construction is coming, our current hubs are capped, so Cindy is sent back to talk to the Aussies. We’ll want as much time as ConAir has if we want to really undermine them out here, and eating up all the space we can will help keep the other two from slipping in. With six regions needed to win, shutting Air’Murica out of two is enough to protect us from them. They’ve not cast their die here yet, but the AI all tend to agree on which cities make the best hubs.



Back from his art campaign, Jerry is redeployed to join in American Aggression. Washington may not be as great a hub, but it remains a solid city. They’re on our list for local connections once we go overseas.



I do I little price gouging while this is on. No sense letting it go to waste.





We need everything we can get.

Q4 1961



They know what they like.



A little bit of bidding and a few more planes.




More time waiting to go in Asia, more hands free to get hooks into the USA. New York has grown so much from its time as a major hub that won’t be hard for us to get our 14 for a nice side-link. Trying to run our own regional operations out of there would be suicide.



All quiet over here. There’s not much more they can do until the Tu124 goes up for sale.

Cairo remains a star attraction, and Hong Kong adds even more capacity.





A return to form for us, and a continuing trend for others.


1961 Year-End Review

Well folks, we have commitment issues. We’ve got money coming in, but without a strong agreement on what to spend it on most of our budget went unused. Core business stagnated for want of planes and places to fly them. We have rights to a lot of time that isn’t getting used.

On the upswing, it means we have piles of money waiting to thrown into getting shit done. We have time open on two continents, and are within two Doug of getting our hands on discounts for big ‘ol jet airliners. AirMurica’s growth has slowed sharply in the face of competition from ConAir, who have in turn ignored their home territory in order to focus on breaking out overseas. Rome is clogged again, but we can scrape time from continental Europe if we chose to go Transatlantic, and we have an impressive 15 slots over in Hong Kong itching to be activated. There’s also ample time at home in Tehran, mostly destined to build on our connectors once they have more planes.

Here’s some highlights.

Connection Options:
We have $46,910K to add to the pile. Let’s make it count.

Budget Carryover:
Build our Plan, and Cut our Budget for 1962.