WHAT THIS IS
Simulation Mode. A complete rebuild of Airline Ops from a casual arcade game into a real airline operations simulator. You start with $40M, zero aircraft, and nothing given to you.
This is an Early Access build. It works. It's deep. It's not finished. You will find bugs. Your feedback determines what gets built next.
TWO MODES
ARCADE MODE is still there. Same game you already know. Pick a hub, buy planes, fly routes. Nothing changed.
SIMULATION MODE is new. No handholding. No free planes. No tutorials. Systems stack on systems. The deeper you dig the more you find. Your first airline will go bankrupt. That's by design.
STARTING A NEW GAME
Pick your hub from 171 airports worldwide. Portland, Heathrow, Narita, São Paulo, Dubai, Zagreb. Each one plays differently because of competition, costs, weather, and what airports are within reach.
Name your airline. Pick your colors.
Lease your first aircraft. Do not buy. Buying is a trap at $40M starting cash. Lease a regional jet with 70+ seats. E175, CRJ-900, Avro RJ100. Do not start with a turboprop unless you want to lose money immediately.
Win slots through nightly negotiations. Hire a legal team. Bid on routes. Build your network outward from your hub.
Create routes. Assign crew. Set catering. Price tickets. Complete preflight checklists. Dispatch.
Watch your airline operate.
WHAT'S IN THE BUILD
OpsCenter
New horizontal nav bar with 6 dropdown menus replacing the old hamburger menu. Operations, Fleet, Crew, Intelligence, Finance, Network. Everything accessible in two clicks max.
FIDS board showing active flights in real time. ATC message log transcribing all radio communications as text. ATC audio toggle so you can hear clearances, handoffs, approach calls, or turn it off and just read.
Flight Operations
6-step route creation wizard. Route, Aircraft, Crew, Catering, Pricing, Review.
Preflight checklists with 6 tasks before every departure. Crew Briefing, Weather Check, Fuel Calculations, Load Sheet, NOTAMs Review, ATC Clearance.
Auto-preflight kicks in after 5 successful completions on a route. Weather warnings override auto-preflight and force manual completion.
Live ATC audio tied to flight phases. Gate announcements 30 minutes before departure. Multi-day aircraft rotations up to 7 days. Ferry flights for repositioning with full cost breakdown before you commit.
Fleet
45+ aircraft types from turboprops to jumbo jets.
Cabin configuration on narrowbody, widebody, and jumbo aircraft. Drag class boundaries between Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First. Regional jets have fixed configs that cannot be changed.
Used aircraft market with rotating pool and price fluctuation.
Leasing with monthly payments. Miss payments and the aircraft gets repossessed.
Crew
150-member crew pool. Captains, First Officers, Flight Attendants. Each with stats, certifications, salary expectations.
Full FAA Part 117 crew duty enforcement. Flight duty periods, rest requirements, cumulative hour limits. Every dispatch requires a Captain, First Officer, and Flight Attendant.
Crew morale system tracking relationships between crew members. Compatibility affects performance. Overwork damages morale.
Technology Systems
Four purchasable tech systems. Each one has an in-game white paper explaining what it does and what it costs before you spend the money.
CrewWise ($18M, requires Tier 3). Predictive crew disruption management. Monitors legality in real time, warns you 2-6 hours before violations, recommends swaps. Color-coded risk states. Prevents cascade failures that cost $200K-$2M each.
YieldMaster ($12M, requires Tier 2). Dynamic pricing. Tracks competitor pricing, models demand elasticity per class, predicts competitor responses. 15% revenue boost.
WebLogic ($22M). Network optimization. Routes displaced crew through your own network instead of buying competitor tickets. 90% reduction in repositioning costs.
MaintenancePro ($80K/month). Predictive aircraft health monitoring. Tracks maintenance schedules, predicts failures, reduces random AOG events by 70%.
Financial Center
Six tabs.
P&L with daily, monthly, and trending views. Balance Sheet. Cash Flow waterfall. Loans from 4 lenders with credit scoring A through F, max 3 active, miss 2 payments and you default. Investors across Angel, VC, PE, and IPO paths with equity dilution mechanics. 30/60/90 day forecasting.
Bankruptcy
14 days of negative cash triggers Chapter 11. You get 30 days to fix it. Fail and it's Chapter 7 liquidation. Game over. Warnings fire at day 10 and day 14.
Partnerships
Interline agreements at 60/40 revenue split. Codeshare at 55/45. Alliance membership for +10% demand boost. AI airlines propose partnerships based on route overlap.
Economy
Economic cycles running Expansion, Peak, Contraction, Recession on 60-120 day loops. Random events including fuel shocks, competitor bankruptcies, pandemic scares, tourism booms, volcanic eruptions, trade wars.
Ops costs scale by aircraft size. A Kodiak does not pay the same gate fees as an A380. Airport cost multipliers mean Heathrow costs 2.5x what Zagreb costs.
Ground Operations
Ground handling contracts in three tiers per airport. Standard at $2,500/turn with 45 minute turnarounds. Regional at $1,800/month with 35 minutes. Premium at $4,500/month with 25 minutes and 50% delay reduction.
Ancillary revenue. Baggage fees, seat selection, priority boarding, wifi at $100K per aircraft install and $12 per passenger per flight.
Corporate contracts for guaranteed seat blocks on business routes. Frequent Flyer Program launch for $2M with Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond tiers.
Catering
Five tiers per class. None ($0, -15% satisfaction). Basic Snack ($3, baseline). Premium Snack ($8, +5%). Hot Meal ($15, +10%). Premium Dining ($25, +15% plus premium brand boost).
Reputation and Progression
5 tiers unlocking new aircraft, routes, and tech. Tier 1 gets you 800nm from your hub. Tier 5 gets you unlimited range.
EOS is the endgame. Requirements are not published. You'll figure it out.
Weather
Full weather simulation with radar overlay on the world map. Weather delays flights, triggers ground stops, forces diversions. Aircraft divert to nearest suitable alternate. Never back to origin.
SETTINGS
Fullscreen and Windowed display modes. ATC audio on/off from the OpsCenter. Speed controls for Pause, 1x, 2x. Custom music folder accepts .mp3/.wav/.ogg files in the custom-music directory.
WHAT'S NOT DONE
Seasonal demand forecasting needs tuning. Market share tracking displays exist but competitive AI needs balancing. Used aircraft market pricing needs more variation. Some UI panels may have brief loading delays on first open. Revenue, costs, and progression speed will be adjusted based on feedback. Knowledge Base is being rewritten and may be incomplete.
KNOWN ISSUES
Airport dropdown in route creation takes several seconds to populate on first open. ATC audio can overlap when multiple flights hit similar phases at the same time. Clock display uses local time. Some flight numbers may repeat across routes.
WHAT'S NEXT
Continued balancing based on player data. Whatever you tell us is missing.
FEEDBACK
This is Early Access. You are the QA team and the design team.
Discord for bugs and feature requests. Steam reviews for honest assessments. Sim mode channel for the people who want to argue about crew legality thresholds and yield management theory.
We would rather know what's broken than wonder why you stopped playing.
Airline Ops v2.0 February 2026