Worlds, challenges and playing together

Kinds of worlds

• Single player: you control the speed, pause and leave as you like.
• Steady: runs in real time or double time and never pauses; log in once a day. A vacation covers up to 14 real days a game year.
• Play together: runs only while every player has the game open, at the speed the game master sets.

Worlds can last one, two or five game years, or forever, with as many computer-run rivals as the creator chose.

The campaign

The Long Climb (on the lobby's campaign card) is six chapters with a story: an investor, Astrid Vang, backs you from one leased jet through a low-cost upstart, a pandemic, a rescue, a freight line and a war for a hub. Each chapter is a private world with fixed settings, letters as the story unfolds and a goal to pass by its end; passing it opens the next. Start a chapter over whenever you like: a pass you have earned stays.

Rules that change

Emissions rules tighten over the years (Money › Regulation): the EU's carbon price climbs, CORSIA offsets get dearer, and the share of sustainable fuel departures from Europe must take rises with the law's calendar, to 20% by 2035. Every change is announced a year before it takes effect, time to favour newer, thriftier aircraft and fares that cover the cost.

Other rules change per world too: a busy airport may bring in a night noise levy on every departure or arrival between 23:00 and 06:00, and two countries may agree open skies, which opens routes between them without designations or caps, for you and for your rivals.

Big events

The summer and winter games, a football championship and a world expo come to real cities, announced 18 to 36 months ahead (Airline Today › Big events). While one runs, demand to and from the host airports rises, up to 80% for the summer games, and slots there cost three times as much. You hear about each when it is announced and again a year, three months and a month before: time to lease aircraft, hire crews and put extra flights on sale.

Scenarios of your own

Scenarios (on the lobby's card) lets you make your own start: the hub, the date, the money, the rivals, how rough the world is, a timetable of crises, a goal and the letters your board sends. Start from a blank page or from a campaign chapter. Play it in a private world, or save it as a file to keep or send to a friend, who can load it and play it too.

The time-lapse

Map › Time-lapse replays your airline's growth on the map, month by month since the first flight: new routes draw in amber, routes you gave up fade away, airports grow with their departures. At the end a summary card (passengers, flights, kilometres, countries, the longest route, the best month) can be saved as an image to share.

The weekly challenge

Every week a new challenge: the same start, hub and rivals for everyone, a goal and a deadline. Play it at your own pace in a world of your own and compare on the leaderboard. Find it in the lobby.

Other players

In a shared world, other players' airlines, fleets, routes and fares are public; their finances are not. Chat talks to the whole world or one player; Deals sells aircraft and slots between players.

Fair play

Be decent to other players. Anything another player wrote (an airline or world name, a chat message, a trade offer's note) has a Report button; moderators can rename it, remove it or pause someone's chat.