Planes - the best way to make loads of money?

[Pak0tac]

So i just witnessed something interesting...
2x320 meters long cargo trains running full at 90kph long distance giving me about 3 mil avergae
considering the extremley high meintenence cost, its O.K

but then i placed 2 large airports near small-medium towns
and bought 4 airliners, (1960 models)
and those 4 airliners, flying short distance line, and not even 100% full, giving me 5.5 mil average
and they are far cheaper then trains

so basically after 1960 there is no point in hauling cargo
i can just spam planes and dominate the economy with billions of dollars

[Autocoach]

Yes it does look like planes can make a lot of money . Gonna need a lot of planes to do this though



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1939696623

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by Autocoach:

Yes it does look like planes can make a lot of money . Gonna need a lot of planes to do this though



https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1939696623

the amount you spent on this train + its maintenence costs, + time spent + the fact that a single mine is limited in its production, well you can spend all this time and money on planes and you will earn more

[TargetLost]

Airports have expensive running costs.

Planes often do missed approaches when there are more than a few planes heading to the same airport. I already have that problem with just 8 aircrafts and large single runway airports.
Glad someone told me I will be able to expand the airport with a second runway after 1980.

But yes certainly an interesting approach. Try it out and let us know how it goes.

[BrokeAsAJoke]

I actually noticed that once you unlock planes the game turns into easy mode. It's a bit cheaty but I tend to start a resource chain in the corner of the map that delivers to the opposite corner as soon as I unlock airplanes. It's free money. The game pays you only based on the distance traveled for a delivery so even taking heavy steel by air is extremely profitable as long as you're covering a long distance. So the first cargo plane that can carry 4 of any resource will net (if memory serves) around 350k per delivery of 4 items. So even one plane can offset the running costs of 2 airports and maintenance and still be profitable. I wish the game would take weight in to account and also penalize you for travelling too much with an item.

For example: If i produce bricks on one side of the map I can transport them all the way across the map for huge profits, but if there is another brick factory right next to the destination and I used it for production I would make a tiny fraction of the income. Also the fuel costs of flying steel across the country vs using trains is rediculous. The game should charge me 10x the maintenance costs based on the weight of goods if i'm transporting by air so it's not sooo profitable. Once I unlock aviation my company just turns into a cash machine.

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by ;1740010660603561844:

I actually noticed that once you unlock planes the game turns into easy mode. It's a bit cheaty but I tend to start a resource chain in the corner of the map that delivers to the opposite corner as soon as I unlock airplanes. It's free money. The game pays you only based on the distance traveled for a delivery so even taking heavy steel by air is extremely profitable as long as you're covering a long distance. So the first cargo plane that can carry 4 of any resource will net (if memory serves) around 350k per delivery of 4 items. So even one plane can offset the running costs of 2 airports and maintenance and still be profitable. I wish the game would take weight in to account and also penalize you for travelling too much with an item.

For example: If i produce bricks on one side of the map I can transport them all the way across the map for huge profits, but if there is another brick factory right next to the destination and I used it for production I would make a tiny fraction of the income. Also the fuel costs of flying steel across the country vs using trains is rediculous. The game should charge me 10x the maintenance costs based on the weight of goods if i'm transporting by air so it's not sooo profitable. Once I unlock aviation my company just turns into a cash machine.

yes its actually a shame there is no weight value in the game
train speed and power is calculated by how many carts it have intead of what it actually moving around, and even if you take an ancient train with 40 max speed, it is still able to haul 300 meters of carts full of steel, its just that its slower thats all

[Dat Zorro]

I think they need some huge investmens to actually gain money, and even then I'm questioning their worth since maintenance alone eats a large chunk of profits away.

The last mission in chapter 2 exactly serves to increase my disdain towards them. I need 19 planes (Super Constellation) running full (19 passengers) and an upgraded airport with two runways to even make the whole mess profitable, averagely 1 million.
Nah, I'm making way more than that with a handful of trains.

[rovaira2]

Originally posted by UAZ-469:

I think they need some huge investmens to actually gain money, and even then I'm questioning their worth since maintenance alone eats a large chunk of profits away.

The last mission in chapter 2 exactly serves to increase my disdain towards them. I need 19 planes (Super Constellation) running full (19 passengers) and an upgraded airport with two runways to even make the whole mess profitable, averagely 1 million.
Nah, I'm making way more than that with a handful of trains.

With planes I found the key is try to ship things in both directions. You can make very nice profits this way; especially on the 54 slot one later (cargo).

Once I get enough money coming in the focus is not on money, but getting all the goods everywhere, reducing traffic, etc. Plus I'm on a map with over 20 cities, so lots of things to do. So, I'm having a lot of fun late game.

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by rovaira2:

Originally posted by UAZ-469:

I think they need some huge investmens to actually gain money, and even then I'm questioning their worth since maintenance alone eats a large chunk of profits away.

The last mission in chapter 2 exactly serves to increase my disdain towards them. I need 19 planes (Super Constellation) running full (19 passengers) and an upgraded airport with two runways to even make the whole mess profitable, averagely 1 million.
Nah, I'm making way more than that with a handful of trains.

With planes I found the key is try to ship things in both directions. You can make very nice profits this way; especially on the 54 slot one later (cargo).

Once I get enough money coming in the focus is not on money, but getting all the goods everywhere, reducing traffic, etc. Plus I'm on a map with over 20 cities, so lots of things to do. So, I'm having a lot of fun late game.

no doubt about that, the game is a load of fun, really forth the money
shame i got like 1000 other games i bought and have i try (damn winter sales)

[BrokeAsAJoke]

if you're flying things between two cities and the cities are only a couple km away from one another then yes, you won't make hardly any money if at all. What I said was that if you fly items across the map (incredibly inefficient) then you will make tons of money.

[Martin]

The point of the game, as far as i'm aware, isn't about making money. It's about supplying needs.

[BrokeAsAJoke]

oh, really? shoot. Thanks for that clarification! Without you coming in to this discussion about making money in the game to direct us to the over-arching purpose of the game. 10/10 Martin.

[Pak0tac]

Originally posted by BrokeAsAJoke:

oh, really? shoot. Thanks for that clarification! Without you coming in to this discussion about making money in the game to direct us to the over-arching purpose of the game. 10/10 Martin.

actually up until now i thought the game was a ww2 RTS
now i know why i couldnt find the tank menu

[Azimek]

Originally posted by Star?:

So i just witnessed something interesting...
2x320 meters long cargo trains running full at 90kph long distance giving me about 3 mil avergae
considering the extremley high meintenence cost, its O.K

but then i placed 2 large airports near small-medium towns
and bought 4 airliners, (1960 models)
and those 4 airliners, flying short distance line, and not even 100% full, giving me 5.5 mil average
and they are far cheaper then trains

so basically after 1960 there is no point in hauling cargo
i can just spam planes and dominate the economy with billions of dollars

Well, yes. Not sure if it's helpful in 2025. But here's what i found out.

I play in sandbox, hard setting, biggest map.

I started on top of the map, Made 2 big cities and 2 smaller. Cargo mostly by trains. Everything fine, cash flow like 50-100 mil. Then i ran out of some recources and i started on the other side of the map. Same as before. Connected couple of cities etc etc. And then...

I started plane industry passengers at first. Didn't do much... cargo planes on the other hand...
First i Connected 2 big cities, then another 2... and i am suddenly on billions...

Everything works automatically and cashflow is insane. I have like 10+ cargo planes between every big city. I deliver everything, don't even know what.

South production -> depo in the city + money ... from depo -> airport depo and back + a lot of money ... from 1 city to another and back by plane + tooons of money. Same in the city it is delivering. Airport depo -> city depo -> nearby cities by trains.

By trains i deliver mostly end chain production like tools, ( that purple icon ) and boxes etc + oil ( 2 types of wagons) .
I use trucks with all cargo in cities and it just all works automatically and cash flow is insane.

Now i am going to rework cities, roads etc to make it nice. Unlimited cash 😀

[RadiKyle]

Originally posted by Azimek:

Well, yes. Not sure if it's helpful in 2025. But here's what i found out.

Yeah it's still relevant, because even 6 years later new ppl are still starting the game and learning things like this.

The payment formula helps:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TransportFever/comments/ztpldt/update_payment_formula/?rdt=61181

And there;s also a graphical calculator:
https://www.desmos.com/calculator/7lvhuosjjo
(You have to zoom out to see the end of the airplane curve.)

The 2 most important factors are distance (straight-line between origin and destination), and the vehicle's top speed (the speed limit in its specs, not the actual speed it reaches on the map).

So faster vehicles and longer distances is always the way to make more money, for any vehicle type. But as you can see on the graph, air obviously has a big speed advantage over even the fastest freight trains. And it's easier to send them across the entire map. So air is ahead for both main factors for $/unit paid.

When operating costs are factored in, later airplanes can also earn more net income than trains, so they can have a shorter payback period (that's ignoring all infrastructure costs tho...).

But whether you can move enough units -- high enough line rate -- to both meet the demand *and* earn more in total than trains could over the same distance, that's the challenge! So air is "easy", but not necessarily the max in all cases.

Cheers

[Zapp]

Originally posted by Star?:

so basically after 1960 there is no point in hauling cargo
i can just spam planes and dominate the economy with billions of dollars

Honestly? There's no point in playing this game at all if all you want is earning loads of cash.

That is, the economy in this game is a joke, a completely unrealistic afterthought. Playing and enjoying this game means ignoring money and just enjoying the pretty trains.