The two most critical decisions an airline make are ‘where to fly’ and ‘what to fly’. I.e. balancing demand with supply. Reaching these decisions is extremely complex and no amount of generic business thinking can help an airline make this decision. It comes down to having a robust understanding of market demand leading to network design and fleet assignment. It takes a strong understanding of aircraft performance, passenger preference, asset utilization, mission capabilities, fit for purpose, configurability and operational flexibility.
 
Too often decisions about aircraft selection are clouded by generic industry reports and analyses by so called ‘experts’ talking about aggregate demand growth and RPK growth. These are only helpful to aircraft manufacturers who need to understand the aggregate traffic potential to be able to forecast what to build. However, airlines do not operate at the aggregate level. Airlines operate individually and in competition. Therefore, looking at the market at this aggregate level almost always leads to airlines deploying too much capacity and failing to properly account for competition and the trade off between unit revenue and unit cost.
 
Aviado Partners works with airlines through the process of demand planning to reach a decision about the number and type of aircraft needed to efficiently operate a competitive network. We bring experience from having worked with small and large airlines and with aircraft manufacturers to help airlines select the right fleet mix for their markets, their competition and their customer segments.​ Our team members have experience with fleet planning and aircraft selection across more than 5,000 aircraft around the world. 
 
Aviado Partners approach to fleet planning is grounded in deep experience in demand analysis. We work closely with the strategy, planning, network and finance teams in an airline to develop an efficient fleet plan. 

The process is complex, but generally includes the following:

• Confirm network requirement

• Design fleet assignment to deploy the existing fleet across the most profitable network in the short term

• Develop long term fleet plan and identify changes to current fleet

• Outline a transition roadmap to move to the ideal fleet plan

• Outline EIS considerations for any new fleet types

• Assist with aircraft type selection

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