Information

Airline Simulation Features

AirwaySim is an advanced airline simulation software that is based on the massive multiplayer online simulation concept. Each player is in charge of his own airline and acts as the CEO of the company. Player is responsible for purchasing aircraft, opening routes, hiring staff and much more.

This page lists all of the major features of the simulation. Please click on each link to view a screenshot of the feature.

Basic features and concepts

• Airline management simulation ("airline game").
• Massive multi-player online game (MMOG).
• Manage your own airline and compete against other human controlled airlines.
• Software used with a regular web browser. No additional software required, can be used anywhere easily.
• The management decisions done by a player directly affect the results of other players (for example ticket pricing).
• Players can also interact with each others for example by selling aircraft or setting up airline alliances.
• Several game worlds / game servers to choose from.
• Each game world has a dedicated theme and settings (for example the included airports, aircraft or fuel prices are set by admin for each world).
• User can be part of several game worlds at once, having a separate airline in each one.
• Game worlds support years from 1950 to 2020. The airports and aircraft selection represent realistically the selected years.
• Game clock runs under "accelerated real-time" model.
• Game world time moves forward one day at a time. One game day equals 25-50 minutes of real time, depending on game world specific settings.
• Players can make their management moves at any time regardless of the current game status or date, the calculation processes run in the background.

Airlines

• Each player can run one airline in each game world. Player can be part of many different game worlds at once.
• Select airline home base at game startup (~3000 airports).
• Assign a unique name and 3-letter ICAO code for the airline.
• Ability to reserve your favourite airline name for your use only.
• Design and upload airline logo and aircraft livery.
• View news of new airlines founded and airlines bankrupted.
• View route maps of your and other airlines.
• View information and wide collection of statistics of all airlines.
• Post press releases and news about your airline for others to view.
• Order daily or weekly status updates of your airline into your e-mail.

Economy

General

• Realistic economy model that follows the real world developments from past to present.
• Real fuel price data used in game's fuel price calculation. Fuel prices can be also custom to allow unpredictability.
• Real inflation data (value of money) used in economy calculation.
• Real interest rates used to calculate loan rates and account interest rates.
• Passenger demand model takes major economic events into account.
• Flight departure times, ticket prices, competition from other airlines, company image (and many other things) affect the passenger demand of your routes.
• Economy model (airline passenger demand, fuel price, inflation rate etc.) can be customized for each game to generate different scenarios.
• View clear and informative graphs and figures of the company status.

Financial management

• View airline income statement (for example yearly or quarterly view).
• Income statement broken down to several areas for view of the income and cost structure.
• View income/expense developments in graphical format.
• Loan money from the bank with selectable amount and payment scheme.
• View airline Credit Rating.
• View current and past loan interest rates.
• View current and past fuel prices.
• Hedge fuel and predict the future prices.
• Sign contracts with local fuel suppliers.
• Declare bankruptcy or be liquidated by the bank if company is making losses.
• Pay income taxes of the corporate profit according to your home base country's tax rates.

Staffing

• Hire new staff, such as management, pilots or cabin crew.
• Adjust staff salaries and respond to staff requests of payraises.
• View and manage the staff morale. Low morale may cause flight cancellations and delays.
• Avoid staff strikes which may occur if staff is neglected.

Marketing

• Keep the virtual people informed about your company with advertising and marketing.
• Adjust marketing levels and medias used (such as TV or newspaper campaigns).
• Adjust number and volume of marketing campaigns.
• Advertise the company as a whole or just advertise some of your routes flown.
• Manage your Company Image and Route Images to keep track on the effects of marketing.
• Low staff satisfaction, bad customer experiences and management mistakes may affect the brand/image of your company.

Aircraft

General

• Realistic aircraft information with accurate technical data, including images and descriptions.
• Practically all commercial airliners included from 1930s to about 2015 with full data.
• Several variants of each aircraft model (as per real aircraft), such as different engine or weight variants.
• Real payload and weight information for aircraft models.
• Accurate aircraft prices, for both old and new.
• Real performance data of aircraft used to calculate flight times and fuel use.
• Accurate payload vs. range calculations: The transported payload affects the range of the aircraft (depending on each model's design features).
• Accurate runway requirement calculations: Aircraft may not be able to depart with full payload from a limited runway.
• Accurate aircraft staffing numbers (pilots and cabin crew).
• Assign registration codes ("tail numbers") to aircraft in your fleet (in same format as in real life for each country).
• Assign "nick names" for aircraft to help in identification.
• Compare two aircraft models against each others.
• View combined financial/technical/maintenance reports of your aircraft fleet.
• View detailed information of each of your aircraft with details of all aircraft aspects.
• View Payload vs. Range charts of aircraft.
• View Range maps of aircraft.
• View fleets of competing airlines.
• View statistics of number of different aircraft in operation.
• Adjust mandatory insurance levels for the aircraft fleet.
• Get financial benefits of fleet commonality (using aircraft that are the same or similar type) and for using new aircraft.
• Use either kg/m or lbs/ft as the measurement unit according to user settings.

New aircraft

• Ability to buy or lease new aircraft.
• Real production dates of each aircraft model (launch date, 1st delivery date, closure of production...)
• Advanced production slot system for allocating aircraft delivery dates.
• Realistic aircraft production rates and waiting times before delivery.
• View production lists, production slots and order queues for new aircraft.
• Select different financing methods and aircraft variants for the order from a manufacturer.
• Ability to edit and change aircraft order details before delivery.
• View details of aircraft on order before they are delivered.
• Assign routes to aircraft before they are delivered (to start operations instantly).

Used aircraft

• Ability to buy or lease old/used aircraft, either from other players or from computer generated aircraft brokers.
• Own planes can be sold in the used aircraft market where they can be bought by other players or computer generated brokers.

Seating configuration

• Customizable aircraft seating configuration for all aircraft models.
• Choose seat classes: Economy, Business or First Class seats.
• Choose seat types and number for each class. Each seat type has different costs and passenger comfort levels.
• Poor seat comfort is disliked by the "virtual passengers" while excellent comfort may lead to higher sales.
• Ability to choose desired seating configuration while making orders for new or used aircraft.
• Ability to change seat configuration for existing aircraft in operation.
• The number of seats installed affects the max. range of the aircraft as max. payload changes.

Maintenance

• Aircraft condition, flight hours and maintenance status affects the value of aircraft.
• Poor aircraft condition may lead to excessive flight delays or cancellations.
• Aircraft maintenance: A, B, C, D checks must be planned for all aircraft.
• Aircraft can be grounded by CAA if it has not been properly maintained.
• Scrap old aircraft.

Airports

General

• Most major commercial airports included (~3000 airports) worldwide.
• Realistic passenger demand data for all airports included in the game.
• Accurate airport and runway information.
• Use either 4-letter or 3-letter airport codes according to user setting.
• Ability to select only certain airports or countries to a game to create a local game scenario.
• Realistic country data and flags. Countries change names and status as per their real independence dates (eg. collapse of Soviet Union).
• Historical airports are also modeled (if data has been available).
• New airports open and old airports close according to events in real life (for example Hong Kong - Kai Tak).
• View list of airports in a country.
• View map of airports in a country.
• Realistic airport curfews.
• Realistic airport movement capacity levels.
• View airlines based on selected airport.
• View location of the airport on scrollable map.
• View airport information and statistics.
• View airport market share between airlines.
• List destinations from an airport "timetable".
• View route map of an airport.

Airport slots

• Realistic airport runway slot system for selected airports.
• Slot capacity depends on airport location, size, year etc.
• Pay to acquire a new runway slot according to various factors.
• View number of available slots at an airport.
• View graphics of airline slot usage for each airport.
• Unused / expired slots are removed from airlines.
• Airport curfews modeled to restrict night movements according to reality.

Routes

General

• Passenger demand on a certain route is calculated based on real passenger numbers of the departure and destination airports.
• Actual passenger demand (seats sold by an airline) is affected by dozens of variables. Such as flight time, ticket price, flight frequency, company image, number of competing airlines and their ticket prices etc.
• Open new routes between two airports.
• Routes and destinations browsable via easy area/country selection system with range filters.
• Routes can be scheduled with technical refueling stops.
• Assign a dedicated aircraft type for a route.
• Select the route departure time, turnaround times and days of operation.
• Route flight times are calculated according to realistic aircraft performance data.
• Actual payload of the aircraft depends on variables such as the aircraft's payload capability and runway requirements.
• Display route departure and arrival times in UTC or local time.

Management

• View detailed airport information from route management areas.
• View the estimated passenger demands of a route.
• View market share of a route segment.
• Get complete details of a route segment with one click ("route planning").
• View competitor information on a route.
• View route maps of your routes.
• View route maps (and other information) of competing airlines.
• See combined statistics of all your routes.
• View the route details, load factors and profits of all your routes on a combined page.
• View notifications and important information of your routes on a single combined page.
• View delay and cancellation statistics of all your routes on a single page.
• Ability to flag routes for notification purposes.
• View detailed route information with daily history of the incomes and sold seats.
• View graphics of route profits and load factor history for all routes or for a single route.
• Edit ticket prices of the routes one-by-one.
• Edit ticket prices of the routes for all routes at once, or for certain destination only.

Scheduling

• Assign each route to a schedule of an aircraft with a 24/7 type scheduling system.
• View schedules of an aircraft for the whole week.
• Assign A/B maintenance checks to the schedule.
• Quickly view aircraft information directly from schedule view.
• Ability to clear and transfer aircraft schedules.

Delays

• Various factors cause flight delays and cancellations.
• Poor ontime performance of the airline causes poor passenger satisfaction and lowers the company image.
• View combined delay and cancellation statistics of the airline.
• View punctuality statistics of the airline.
• View causes and cancellations of the delays in your airline.
• Manage your airline and routes to avoid flight delays.

This list is based on the version 1.2 of the software (August 2010). AirwaySim is under constant development and more features are planned and added all the time, so please check the news and announcements and the game worlds itself for complete information.