News

As part of the 10th anniversary of AirwaySim we're posting a series of blog-style posts to tell you more about the history and background of AirwaySim.

In this second post of the series we'll take a look on how it all started.

Read the full story at our forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,79685.0.html

As part of the 10th anniversary of AirwaySim we're posting a series of blog-style posts to tell you more about the history and background of AirwaySim.

This first post in the series introduces the people behing AirwaySim.

Read the full story at our forums: https://www.airwaysim.com/forum/index.php/topic,79661.0.html

Today, on the evening of January 9th, the AirwaySim Online Airline Simulation software is 10 years old!

The public launch of the first version happened on this day back in 2009. It was preceded by a long development and testing period, spanning all the way from the winter of 2006. Our online simulation software has come a long way since those early first steps, and we are glad that we've been able to provide entertainment and education to thousands of aviation fans around the world during these years.

Today marks the start of a special celebration week where we tell you more about the history and background of AirwaySim. During this week special blog-type posts are published and each of them will have a certain theme related to AirwaySim's development and history.

During this special week a discount of 20% is available from all of your Credits purchases when you use the code "AWSTEN" at the purchase page. This code is valid until Jan 16th 2019, 23:59.

The first blog post about people behind AirwaySim will be published later tonight.

A new Beginner's World #1 scenario is now open again according to our normal scenario rotation schedule.

This Beginner game series is aimed for all newbies and other players wishing to test different playing styles in an easier environment. The two beginner scenarios follow always the standard easy settings and same time frame as the previous beginner scenarios, and they restart about once every month.

It's again the time of the winter holidays and new year. We'd like to wish all AirwaySim's users a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May your virtual airlines fly on time also during 2019 :)

Our traditional holiday sale is again here with a 20% discount from all your Credits purchases. Use the discount code XMAS18 at the purchase page. The discount is valid until Dec 27th 2018, 23.59 UTC.

The development plan for the winter and spring will bring you airport expansions and in-flight service concepts. More details of these plans later on. ;)

Greetings,
Sami, AirwaySim's Developer

A new Beginner's World #2 scenario is now open again according to our normal scenario rotation schedule.

Our beginner game series is aimed for all newbies and other players wishing to test different playing styles in an easier environment. The two beginner scenarios follow always the standard easy settings and same time frame as the previous beginner scenarios, and they restart about once every month.

Cargo Challenge scenario is now open!

» Join Cargo Challenge

Our next mini-game has focuses purely on freight transportation. In the Cargo Challenge game you can start your cargo airline and expand it anywhere in the world. You have only cargo aircraft available and there is no passenger demand. Overall play duration from start to finish is about 2 months.

Basic setup of this scenario:

• Difficulty level: Standard
• Aircraft: Only pure freighter aircraft (no passenger or combi planes)
• Cargo with City Based Demand system included
• All airports in the world are included
• No geographical airport basing restrictions - open additional bases anywhere in the world! (normal base number and aircraft number limits exist)
• Time span: 2015-2024, 30 minutes per game day
• Fuel prices are customized and may not follow real world history
• Random world events are included
• Achievements can be earned

Additional notes to consider:

• Easy Start option to start with a ready-made airline is not available in this scenario. You will need to choose your HQ airport manually and get the first aircraft from the used market yourself.
• Aircraft selection is as wide as possible for this era (with some already out of production models still available as new, such as MD-11).
• Aircraft available only as conversions from existing used aircraft can be also ordered from the factory.
• Like in all scenario starts, the cargo demand levels will start at lower levels and will gradually rise. The overall cargo demand is much higher than in other games having both passenger and cargo features.
• First turn is 24 hours long as usual.
• Take your time in expanding and building your airline, and do not spend all your money at once. The potential cargo demand will shift slowly towards the actual demand and making the cargo routes profitable will take more time than passenger routes.

As voted by the community the next short mini-game will have a cargo theme. The Cargo Challenge game world will open on the evening of Friday November 16th.

This special-rules game will have an overall play duration of about 2 months and will focus solely on the cargo business. Passenger transportation is not available and you can only choose from cargo aircraft.

You can already pre-join this upcoming scenario from the Game Area.

This challenge theme game will use custom settings:

• Difficulty level: Standard
• Aircraft: Only pure freighter aircraft (no passenger or combi planes)
• Cargo with City Based Demand system included
• All airports in the world are included
• No geographical airport basing restrictions - open additional bases anywhere in the world! (normal base number and aircraft number limits exist)
• Time span: 2015-2024, 30 minutes per game day
• Fuel prices are customized and may not follow real world history
• Random world events are included
• Achievements can be earned
• Note: Easy Start option to start with a ready-made airline is not available in this scenario!

A new Beginner's World #1 scenario is now open again according to our normal scenario rotation schedule.

This Beginner game series is aimed for all newbies and other players wishing to test different playing styles in an easier environment. The two beginner scenarios follow always the standard easy settings and same time frame as the previous beginner scenarios, and they restart about once every month.

(p.s. the next short game world, Cargo Challenge, will open this Friday; details available soon!)

The mini-game 1980s Challenge ended today after about 2.5 months of play time. Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations to the winners!

The details and theme of the next shorter challenge scenario will be announced after the public voting on the matter is completed.

Statistics and results from the game's end:

A new Beginner's World #2 scenario is now open again according to our normal scenario rotation schedule.

Our beginner game series is aimed for all newbies and other players wishing to test different playing styles in an easier environment. The two beginner scenarios follow always the standard easy settings and same time frame as the previous beginner scenarios, and they restart about once every month.

Besides of the four long game worlds and beginner scenarios AirwaySim has also frequent shorter "challenges" that are always build with some theme in mind.

These shorter scenarios are ideal for people who cannot commit to a year-long simulation but still like more variation and difficulty than in the very easy Beginner's World games.

The current 1980s Challenge will end soon and now it's time to cast your vote and let us know what type of scenario we should set up next. So head over to our forums and vote & comment.

The new Game World #3 is now open and welcomes all new airline managers!

» Join the game here

Game World #3 is our "Modern Times" scenario that focuses on managing the airlines in the present and future era. In this round the simulated period is from 1999 to 2036.

This game world will follow the standard settings for long AirwaySim games:

• Standard difficulty level
• All airports, all aircraft models (including the "prototypes") and all features are included.
• Cargo with City Based Demand system included.
• Time span: 1999 - 2036, 30 minutes per game day.
• Fuel prices are customized and may not follow real world history. Random world events are included too.
• You can of course also earn the Achievements from this game like in all other "main" game scenarios at AirwaySim.
• Passenger demand levels follow the standard realistic settings but are lower at the very start of the game and will gradually grow.
• The aircraft production rates and amount of airport slots are higher compared to the standard "real-world" setting.

Some notes regarding this game world and the settings and features:

• The new aircraft model selection has been checked and adjusted to be very comprehensive, and there are many options to choose from in different aircraft size classes.
• For used aircraft there are some 30 000 aircraft in the world at day 0, and these are released to the used aircraft market in random intervals. The model selection varies and you have still access to some jurassic models like DC-9 and B727 but also a good amount of later models such as the A320. Our randomizer decided this time that McDonnell Douglas has been a very successful manufacturer in the past, so don't be surprised to see quite many of their models in the used market.
• The 9/11 effects are toned down a bit since they will appear quite soon after the world has started. The events still exist but with a bit less force and duration.
• The airport traffic and infrastructure levels follow a new system where their initial levels are lower than before, and both will grow over time. (The announcement of these changes will be posted once the features are finalized)
• There have been changes on how the initial amount of airport slots and initial cargo demand are being calculated (details will be posted in next changelog post). This results in initially smaller amount of slots being available but their growth over time to normal values is quicker.
• As a reminder: each game world will have some factor that quickly becomes the most limiting factor to your growth at the game start. Slots, aircraft, money or demand are the top 4 reasons. If you hit some of these, just be a bit patient...

If it has been a while since you started at early stages in a major AirwaySim games, here are a few reminders and tips:

• The game clock is paused for the first day and will start moving after 24 hrs.
• There are plenty of used aircraft available to begin with, but the used aircraft market will soon become limited and the popular aircraft types are sold/leased very quickly. Take care when picking the aircraft you plan to use - it's not a bad idea to start with an "unpopular" type since generally the economy is quite forgiving at the start of the game. The used aircraft market will refresh several times during the first static 24 hour day.
• New aircraft ordering will be available after the time starts to move (= from day 2 of the simulation).
• Be patient with the route sales figures since your Route Image grows slowly. Do not spend all your cash on planes at once, remember to leave a good reserve. It takes time to gain profits and there might be unexpected early problems..
• Some popular airports, or other small airports, will for sure become limited on airport slots soon. This is normal and you should use larger aircraft or other airports in that case.
• Consider joining an alliance from early stages of the game, they are great resources for improving your game play (tips and help from fellow players).

All set! Move over to the Game Area and join the new game!

The new Game World #3 will open on Friday October 12th

» Pre-join now!

Game World #3 is our "Modern Times" scenario that focuses on managing the airlines in the present and future era.

In this round the simulated period is from 1999 to 2036, and with 30 minute days the overall play duration is about 11 months.

The scenario will be opened on this Friday, October 12th, at about 12 UTC. And as usual the first 24 hours of the game is static and the game clock will start to move after that so you will have plenty of time to start your airline before the action gets going.

This game world will follow the standard settings for long AirwaySim games:

• Standard difficulty level
• All airports, all aircraft models (including the "prototypes") and all features are included.
• Cargo with City Based Demand system included.
• Time span: 1999 - 2036, 30 minutes per game day.
• Fuel prices are customized and may not follow real world history. Random world events are included too.
• You can of course also earn the Achievements from this game like in all other "main" game scenarios at AirwaySim.
• This game world will have new startup settings where airports will start at lower infrastructure and traffic levels, and they will grow over time to expand the reach of the airports (in City Based Demand driving cargo the demand figures).
• Since the starting year is close to the 2001 events (which are rather drastic in aviation), the standard levels of these events have been somewhat modified.

Here are again the highlights of what updates have been recently made to the AirwaySim software. For always up-to-date information and full list of all changes please see the announcement forums and the AirwaySim Changelog.

Updates

• Added a new feature: New aircraft launch order collection period:
• This feature allows airlines to submit their orders for a newly launched aircraft model before the production slots are allocated.
  
• When a new aircraft model is launched all airlines have 45 game days time (approx 1 day in real time) to order the model before the production slots are distributed and preliminary delivery days are allocated. This change allows a fair chance for everyone to order the new aircraft without having to be online 24/7.
  
• The process of placing the orders for such models does not differ at all from ordering models already in production, apart that the actual delivery date is not shown yet.
  
• When this order collection period (of 45 days) has passed the system will allocate actual production slots for all airlines.
• All orders made during this period will receive the full launch customer discount (10%), regardless of the size of the order.
  
• The aircraft information pages (New aircraft, Aircraft information) will show the production status as "Pre-launch: Deliveries from xxx" to indicate that the order collection period is going on. After it has ended the status is displayed as "Deliveries from xxx".

• The Scheduling page has been technically updated:
• The way the flight and maintenance bars are displayed has been coded with a new system that uses a better & more modern way to display the data.
• Added airport labels to Scheduling page: The blue flight bar shows the destination airport ICAO/IATA code. By default this option is currently on, and can be turned off from the Settings/Interface page.
  
• Added a visual overlay for schedule flight bars for aircraft currently in maintenance: The aircraft not flying on routes have a light gray overlay on the blue flight bars.

• Route Maps updated with better resolution and more background data.
• City Based Demand: Calculation in logic of which areas each airport will catch is improved.
• City Based Demand: Border crossing rules activated (1st version). Passengers can now cross country borders under certain conditions to reach the desired airport.
• City Based Demand: Background economic data sets updated.