Hi. I am very new as well but i figure I can still help with this. When i started a few weeks ago all my routes were red too. I think this is due to your airline reputation and service quality being so low. I dont know if this is the best plan but it worked for me.
- Lower ticket price. You can raise it back up again in a couple days. The lower price will help attract customers which will increase your airline reputation.
- I didn't fly fewer than 3 flights a week to any airport. I think more consistent flights will also help build the loyalty and awareness of your airline at the destination.
- Under the office tab there is a gear next to a field called Target Service Quality. I typed in 10 and clicked the green check mark to accept the new value. Overtime, but relatively quickly, your airline service quality will increase to match this value. Start small as the higher numbers will be costly.
- After a day or so I went back and started bumping up my prices a click or two. If my utilization stayed at 100% I bumped it up again.
- I started with the Embraer EMB120 Brasilia plane. Im not sure if its "best" but it was the first one that had a lot of people using it.
- Initially I stayed away from routes with competition but i've found that its entirely possible to still fill all my capacity on routes with lots of other people. Probably because I am still so small but point is, dont be afraid of good routes with competition.
I was in the red for a little while but soon the higher awareness and service quality let me bump up my prices to the point where i was making money.
Hope that helps a little bit!
-Vulkan Airlines