I'll caution that I don't fully know the mechanics involved with airline credit rating but what I am experiencing is unusual enough that I wanted to check if this is a bug or not.
I have an airline (Hoek Airlines) in The Modern Times with an airline value of $699M and a company image of 88 (both 13th overall). However my credit rating is CCC (30th overall) when there are many airlines that have both lower airline values and lower company images but still enjoy a higher credit rating.
I am not cash negative and had been paying off my initial loan consistently for several months. I did have some issues in the first year of the game where I had negative cash and the loan was not paid back that week but I had consistently paid back the loans for many months afterward. I also never received a bankruptcy notice during that time.
I even took the step of paying off my entire loan balance early and waiting through another week and still my credit rating remains CCC.
Is what I am experiencing a bug or is it in some way tied to skipping some loan payments in the early months of the airline? If the later is the case, how would I go about improving my credit? Simply wait longer (hopefully not too long!), build up a certain cash reserve, or something else?