Smarter route decisions. Stronger airline economics.

Compare routes, aircraft and operating scenarios to assess revenue, cost and profitability.

Assess local demand and connecting traffic
Compare routes, frequencies and aircraft capacity
Review contribution, load factor and aircraft utilization
Recalculate as demand, fares and costs change

The shortlist

Route comparison

Illustrative starting data. Select a route to change its assumptions.

Contribution by route / day

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City pair	Passenger revenue / day	LF	Contribution / day	Aircraft time used	Break-even LF

Contribution = passenger revenue + cargo and mail contribution − entered flight operating cost. Demand reflects the selected seasonal scenario. Airport flags are user-entered planning checks. Overhead, fare dilution, displaced traffic and competitive response are excluded.

Scenario inputs

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Values are per day unless stated.

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Shared assumptions & method

Flights and demand: Each round trip has two flights. Demand is entered per day, per direction. Seasonal settings adjust both local and connecting demand.
Seats and revenue: Seats × daily round trips gives capacity in each direction. Extra seats increase revenue only when there is unmet demand. Connecting fare credit sets the share of the local fare earned from connecting passengers.
Daily contribution: Passenger revenue plus cargo and mail contribution, minus operating costs.
Break-even load factor: The percentage of seats that must be filled to cover costs at the entered fares, after cargo and mail contribution.
Aircraft utilization: Flight time plus turnaround time, divided by available daily hours. Above 100% requires more than one aircraft.
Aircraft estimates: Selecting an aircraft loads editable seats, flight time, cost and range. Neo and MAX fuel savings reduce the fuel portion of cost.
Crew costs: Changing total crew adjusts flight cost at the cabin crew hourly rate. Only the difference from the crew included in baseline cost is applied.
Range and airport checks: Routes exceeding the aircraft range limit are flagged. Runway and slot settings flag airport constraints. Flagged routes keep their financial results visible.

Aircraft estimate defaults

Aircraft	Seats	Cruise speed	Cost / modeled hour
A320ceo	180	450 kt	$7,050
A320neo (LEAP)	186	450 kt	$6,807
A320neo (PW)	186	450 kt	$6,791
B737-800	189	460 kt	$6,363
B737 MAX 8	189	460 kt	$6,159

Seats: A320ceo 180; A320neo 186; B737-800 and MAX 8 189. These published single-class layouts provide a consistent starting point.
Operating cost: A320ceo $5,400/hour and B737-800 $4,850/hour, based on aircraft-family cost averages. Add baseline cabin crew pay and a 25% airline overhead allowance to the aircraft benchmark, then multiply by block time. The overhead allowance is editable.
Fuel savings: Fuel starts at 30% of the aircraft cost benchmark. Estimated fuel reductions are 15% for LEAP, 16% for PW and 14% for MAX 8. Applying these gives the lower hourly costs shown above.
Flight time: Cruise speeds are 450 knots for A320s and 460 knots for B737s. Add 5% to route distance and 40 minutes for taxi, climb and descent to estimate block time.
Range: A320ceo 3,350 nm; A320neo 3,400 nm; B737-800 2,800 nm; MAX 8 3,500 nm. These published ranges provide a simple check for routes that are too long.
Crew: Two pilots plus one cabin crew member per 50 seats, rounded up. Cabin crew cost starts at $75/person/block hour, including pay and employer costs.
Daily aircraft time: 45 minutes per turnaround and 14 available hours per aircraft give a starting budget for comparing utilization.
Starter examples: All three use aircraft-based cost and flight-time estimates. Average one-way fares start at $80 for JFK–BUF, $120 for BOS–RDU and $75 for JFK–BTV. These are illustrative airline revenue amounts per passenger. JFK–BTV starts with lower demand to show an underperforming route.
Route distance: Recognized airport codes calculate great-circle distance automatically. Enter or edit the distance manually when needed.