San Luis Enterprises

To start the game, I needed to set up a company.  I decided to play at the hard level, which gave me an A36 Beech Bonanza, $500,000 in cash, and a reputation of 40.  This reputation allowed me to hire pilots and take out loans.

One of the first decisions I had to make was where to locate my home base.  This is actually a very important decision in the game.  In fact, it may be the most important decision.  Since I have lived in Colorado most of my life, have travelled around the state, and am familiar with the geography of the state, I wanted to start my new game in Colorado.

Costs can vary quite dramatically at different airports.  There is a huge difference in the start up costs of a small local airport, and a major international airport.  For example, the cost of opening a base at Denver International Airport is $710,000; this is more than my beginning cash.  If I take out the maximum bank loan of $320,00, I can afford it, and still have $110,000 left over.  But this is not going to be the best use of my money.

In contrast, the airport I selected for my opening base was in Alamosa, Colorado.  The opening cost at Alamosa, in contrast is $175,000.

Now, it might actually make sense to use Denver International Airport as my starting airport.  The game gives players their first base for free.  So I could get a base at DIA for free, basically another starting bonus of $710,000.  But there are other reasons for selecting a smaller airport to begin with.

First of all, players pay monthly rent at their airports.  The monthly rent at DIA is $87,136; in Alamosa it is $26,409.  Every time one lands an aircraft, the airport charges a landing fee.  At DIA, the landing fee is $3,976; at Alamosa, it is $790.  The cost of fuel at DIA is $1.40 per pound; at Alamosa it is $1.20.  Clearly, it costs a lot less to operate out of a small airport.  At the beginning of the game, costs are very important.

What really drove my decision, however, were the commodities available at my home base. I compiled a list of six basic commodities that are used to make tier two items:  chemicals, electronics, machine parts, batteries, leather and glass.  The tier two items created by these commodities can then be used in creating tier three commodities.

For example, one of the most useful commodities is chemicals.  Two pounds of chemicals are used to create one pound of plastics.  In the game, plastics are in important component for many products.  However, since it is a tier two commodity, it is not available on the market.  It must be manufactured.

Other of these basic commodities are used in many tier two and tier three products.  For example, electronics, along with plastics, are used to make radios.  Radios in turn are used to make scooters, which are a highly profitable tier three product.  In fact, plastics and electronics are found in many products like televisions, computers and avionics.

There are also other basic commodities which are used to make a limited number of secondary products.  Sheep are made into Haggis.  Textiles are made into clothing and designer clothing.  Perfumes are used to make cosmetics.

In choosing a home base, I was looking for an airport which offered what I considered to be the six most important commodities:  chemicals, electronics, machine parts, batteries, leather and glass.  Very few airports offer all six of these commodities.  I was able to rule out all of the front range airports.  In fact, only one airport in the state bought and sold all six of these items:  Alamosa KALS in the San Luis Valley.  So this was the site of my first base.

Since Alamosa is located in Colorado's San Luis Valley, I decided to name my new company San Luis Enterprises.  I chose the word "Enterprises" because I was going to be more than an airline or cargo hauler;  I was creating a business empire.