Whenever I see these conversations start and the profit charts thrown around, I feel like so much context is left out. Choosing the right fleet planes for you really isn’t as simple as picking the most profitable and going on your way (unless you want it to be this simple!). What aircraft is best for you is going to depend on your play style, what airports you are playing, and what you are trying to do. So here is some food for thought for the discussions above:
Just for the sake of keeping this not too long, I’m going to mostly focus on the B748F vs B744F vs B77LF
Cargo planes in this game are incredibly interesting. Because they currently don’t have the ability to have their holds configured, where these planes can go is far more limited than a pax plane. That also means that to optimize for profit, you need to consider the cargo hold size when sending planes on their routes.
All 3 of these planes have fairly large cargo holds but do have some slight differences in destination possibilities because of the hold sizes. So if you’re looking to send to a specific airport, might be worth doing some digging to figure out what either diversifies your route tree the best OR what has the biggest benefit on the route you most want to fly (I only do player routes so the latter is very important to me).
It’s also important to consider which airports you are sending from and whether you are underutilizing your runway capacity or stand capacity or handling crew capacity. For example, an airport like MCT has very few cargo stands. If you want to turn these faster so you can turn a higher quantity during a play session, then picking an airplane that spends less time at the stands (B77LF or even A332F) might benefit you. If you are maximizing runway capacity but not stand capacity, then aircraft that take longer to handle will maximize your value (such as the B748F and B744F).
Another consideration is airports with overlapping stands. Take for example HKG – several of these F cargo stands will block not only other F class cargo planes from parking in neighboring stands, but also E class planes. Do you want to budget space for an F class plane in these stands or would you rather an E class plane park there and allow more larger aircraft parked at once? This might make you want the B744F or B77LF over the B748F.
Now, if your goal is pure acquisition of XP – B748F slightly wins over the B744F.
You also brought up D cargo with the B752F. This plane used to be a backbone of my smaller cargo fleets, but it’s one I’ve de-emphasized as the MD11F has taken its role in my fleet. A lot of airports don’t have dedicated D cargo stands as well, so they don’t always have as clear of a role as they used to.
Lots of things to consider! I summarized a few of the options above but it’s by no means comprehensive. I always start with the planes I like and then go from there.