New Player Advice

Firstly, a little advice for those who are struggling with the huge amount of options at the beginning of the game. The minimum you need for a successful airport is this:

It contains a grass runway that accepts GA flights, single-tile width taxiways (in other words, the taxiways don’t have to be as wide as the planes), a few small plane stands that accept GA flights, and a control tower.

For some reason, the tutorial that comes with the game immediately tries to get the player to build a large, expensive commercial terminal building. Really there should have been a separate, simple tutorial showing how to build this example above first. This would then be followed by the more advanced commercial airport tutorial.

Now For A Broad, General Review

Because the game is in early access, it’s hard to talk about specifics. Every small problem I have will have a response from someone saying “It will be fixed!” So instead, I will leave my list of small suggestions until the end, and focus on larger, harder to solve issues.

General problem: I don’t know if the game has much potential in the long run.

This might shock players who have seen the amount of buildable objects in the game, and surely looking at that complex GUI there must be a lot to do? The problem is this: there are really only two, (or two and a half) airports you can build. After this, if you want to build more airports, it all comes down to how much you can customize each one. Currently, Sim Airport has the better customization, even if Airport CEO has the more in depth management.

Below is an expanded version of the simple airport that I mentioned above, with fuel services added:

This can be called a GA Airfield, and it’s nice and simple to build. Here, you can see that I have basically built everything you can for one. There are no extra services other than fuel, though apparently cleaning and maintenance will be added in the future. I haven’t tested this yet, but I assume that if I were to add shops, no one from the planes would get out and use them. In other words, this GA Airfield is finished. The planes land, they sometimes get fuel, and then they fly off.

That’s not a problem on it’s own, because as I said, it’s nice and simple to start with. It’s great for beginners. I can use this airport to save up money, and to start funding the development of the second type of airport, which we’ll call a Commercial Airport.

I would say there are two and a half types of airports rather than two; you can either build a simpler Commercial Airport without baggage, or a more complex Commercial Airport with. But unless you are creative with the layouts or the floor and scenery designs, each airport of the same type essentially operates the same.

If we look at Prison Architect, this game had unique prisons; prisons that would basically torture inmates, prisons that would be very gentle to inmates and promote reformation, and prisons that could specialize in both depending on the types of prisoners. Whilst it may only look like two and a half types of prisons again, there’s a spectrum of intensities.

Looking at SimCity 2013, each map offered unique resources, that would enable the player to specialise their cities. Casino cities were visually different and operated differently to mining cities.

Going to Big Pharma, a medicine production line manager, there are a lot of various (possibly randomized) drugs to produce, that each require the player to build unique factory designs.

Obviously a Commercial Airport is always going to have: Drop-Off -> Check-In -> Security -> Departure Lounge -> Boarding Gate, and then Gate -> Customs -> Baggage Collection -> Exit. But, there are still more variations available of other airport types. Just look at how different creating a GA Airfield is to creating a Commercial Airport already, there are lots of ways to add more.

Specialized Airports

GA Airfield

Commercial Airport

Business Airport Executive Lounge Taxi or Limo Stand Helipad Statues and Fountains Meeting Room Overnight Hotel Private Jet as separate flight type

Low Budget Tourist Airport Arcade Bar Souvenir Shop Overnight B&B Kids Play Area Cheaper, Tackier Decor

Pilot Training Airfield Similar to a GA airfield, but with bigger plane stands and a larger runway Classroom Motion Simulator Don’t have to micromanage, simply build it

Air Show (DLC?) Build usual runway and plane stands Add outdoor seating and food stalls Create custom flight shows and choose from a variety of planes with different effects



The key is, the game doesn’t lack content. It has a lot to build already compared to other building games; the issue is that every airport requires the same objects. The only exceptions are the differences between GA Airfields and Commercial Airports.

Smaller Problems

I get charged operational costs for items that have not been built yet. Need an auto-repair option for runways and plane stands. The GUI needs a lot of changes, but many have talked about this already. Need a way to handle traffic, i.e. one way roads and avenues when dragging two roads together. Change snapping option on flight planner, such as to every 15 minutes Would be really nice to have car parks, where people drive in and park their cars. You might be wondering “but how does the simulation keep track of who’s car belongs to who?” Honestly, it can be faked. When the car is parked by someone arriving, just give each car an internal timer randomized between 1 day and 7 days, and after that time any person leaving the airport can claim the car to be theirs and drive off with it. Airports always have huge car parks, and with the addition of the one way roads and avenues would make it really fun to design the road networks. If avenues are added, I would recommend making the outside connection an avenue by default. If multiple levels are not plausible, perhaps allow bridges that allow passengers to cross between buildings, and if both sides are secure than the bridge is classed as secure. If a roof is built on top so the inside of the bridge cannot be seen, the pathfinder can teleport people across if it is too complicated to implement a true passing bridge.