Reading the numbers

The tiles

Most pages open with a row of figures. Each has a caption, the figure and a line of context under it. Tap the ? beside a caption to read what it means; this chapter lists them all.

Dashboard

• Cash: Money in the bank now. Below zero at a month's end (after salaries and rent) the airline goes into administration, so keep at least a month of salaries, rent and overheads in hand.
• Operating result, 30 days: Revenue less operating costs over the last 30 days, before interest and tax. Thirty days always include one set of monthly charges (salaries, rent, overheads), so it is steadier than a week. A new route flies light for its first weeks while bookings build up.
• Fleet: Aircraft in service or on order, leased or owned.
• Hub: Your home airport. The note shows your reputation (0–100): it weighs in every passenger's choice and drifts toward a level set by comfort, cancellations, punctuality and service.
• Passengers, 7 days: Passengers flown on your scheduled flights in the last seven days.
• Load factor: The share of seats filled (for cargo, of payload). Under about 70% usually means too many flights, too big an aircraft or fares too high; over 90% suggests room for higher fares or more flights.
• On time (≤15 min): Flights that left within 15 minutes of schedule. Well-run airlines manage 76–82%; late flights cost compensation, reputation and reviews.
• Extras per passenger: Revenue from bags, seats, fare-family upgrades and other extras, per passenger. It comes on top of the ticket and costs little to earn.
• Cargo, 7 days: Freight flown in the last seven days, in tonnes.
• Cargo revenue, 7 days: What the freight flown in the last seven days earned.
• Offloaded, 7 days: Booked cargo that did not fit on the day (passengers' bags go first). A lot of it means the lane wants more capacity or a higher rate.
• Still to come: Reminders set for days still ahead. Each comes back as a letter on its day.
• Ticked off: Reminders you have marked done.

People

• Heads in post: Department heads you employ, of the seven posts. Only heads in post can come to a meeting; an empty post has nobody to ask, and its job is yours.
• Last meeting: When the heads last met, with how many came and how many points they raised. The team meets once a game week.
• Raised last time: What the points raised at the last meeting are worth a month, by the heads' own estimates: close to the truth from a strong head, rough from a weak one. Board targets and advice on letters are not counted.
• Next meeting: When the team can meet again: a week after the last meeting.
• Morale: 0–100. It moves with pay against the market, workload and the airline's reputation. Below 35 people start to resign.
• Skill: How good they are: pilots' skill shortens delays and raises safety, cabin crew's sets service, a head's sets how well they run their department.
• Salary: Monthly pay before employer costs (35% on top).
• Cost to the airline: Salary plus employer costs, a month.
• Block hours, 28 days: Hours flown in the last 28 days. The legal limit is 100 (less under some union agreements); over about 70 tires crew and lowers morale.
• Unions: Bargaining groups with members (pilots, cabin crew, engineers, ground staff).
• Next agreement ends: The next union agreement to expire. Talks open 90 days before; without a deal by the end, members may vote for action.
• In talks or dispute: Unions negotiating now, or in dispute after an agreement lapsed.
• Strikes: The next strike called against you, if any, and strike days over the last 12 months. Strikes by your own staff cancel flights and do not excuse compensation.
• Your pilots: Captains and first officers, and whether any are paid under the market rate (they may leave).
• Cadets in school: Pilot cadets training at your academy, with graduates and how many are still bonded to you.
• Ready for command: First officers skilled enough (60+) to be promoted to captain.

Challenges and milestones

• Random crises: How often crises come by chance in this world: none, now and then (about real-world odds), or three times as often. Crises called by hand come whatever this is set to.
• Chapters passed: Campaign chapters whose goal you reached. Passing a chapter opens the next; a chapter can be played again, and a pass stays.
• Ranked on: What this week's challenge is scored on.
• Length: How long the challenge runs in game time, from its start date.
• Entries close: The last day to enter this week's challenge.
• Weeks played: Weekly challenges you entered, and how many you finished.
• Best rank: Your best finishing place in a week.
• Podiums: Weeks you finished in the top three.
• Wins: Weeks you won.
• Milestones reached: Milestones your airline has reached, out of all there are.
• The latest: The milestone you reached most recently.
• Names of your own: Names you have changed in the game (your own words for fictional aircraft or companies).
• Who sees them: Your own names show only to you, in every world you play.

Routes and flights

• Your routes touching it: Your routes to or from the next big event's host airports: the ones that gain while it runs, and that may want more flights or a larger aircraft for the dates.
• Contribution, 30 d: The route's revenue less its flights' direct costs over 30 days. Positive means the route helps pay salaries, rent and overheads, even if it does not cover them yet.
• Departures: Flights flown on the route in the period.
• On time: Flights that left within 15 minutes of schedule.
• Passengers: Passengers flown in the period shown.
• Revenue / pax: Average revenue per passenger, tickets and extras together (extras in the note).
• Market share: Your share of everyone flying this city pair, players, rivals and established carriers.
• Direct costs: What this flight alone cost: fuel, airport and navigation fees, handling, catering, crew allowances and emissions.
• Flight contribution: Revenue less direct costs for this flight.
• After aircraft and crew: The flight's contribution less an estimated share of the aircraft's rent and the crew's salaries: whether it pays its way in full.
• Flown, 24 h: Flights that departed in the last 24 hours.
• Cancelled: Flights cancelled in the period. Each costs the tickets, often compensation, and reputation.
• Ferry flights: Empty flights to move aircraft where they are needed: fuel and fees with no revenue.
• Crew positioned: Crew sent as passengers on other airlines to cover a flight: costly, but it saves the flight.
• Recovery cover: Spare aircraft and reserve crew you hold for disruption. Even one of each turns many cancellations into short delays.
• Aircraft in service: Aircraft able to fly (not on order or in a heavy check).
• Block hours a day: Hours from gate to gate your timetable plans, per day.
• Idle aircraft: Aircraft with nothing scheduled: they cost rent and earn nothing.
• Rotations: Timetabled out-and-back trips.
• Short of crew: Flights in the next days that do not have a full legal crew yet. Without crew they are cancelled.
• Slots held: Take-off and landing slots you hold at slot-controlled airports.
• At risk (use it or lose it): Slots flown less than 80% of the time over the last four weeks: they go back to the pool.
• Slot charges, 28 days: Charges per take-off and landing at slot airports, dearer at peak hours.
• Value at market prices: What your slots would sell for.

Money and finance

• EU carbon price: What a tonne of CO2 costs flights within the EU/EEA (the UK's own scheme in the note). It changes over the years, each change announced a year ahead (Money › Regulation).
• CORSIA offsets: What international flights outside Europe's emissions trading pay per tonne of CO2. It rises over the years, announced a year ahead.
• Sustainable fuel: The share of sustainable fuel departures from Europe must take, at about three times the price of jet fuel: the note shows what it adds to fuel. It rises on the law's calendar, to 20% by 2035.
• Next change: The next rule change announced in this world and when it takes effect: carbon prices, the fuel mandate, a night noise levy or open skies.
• Revenue: Money earned in the period: tickets, extras, cargo and other business. Capital movements (selling aircraft, loans) are not revenue.
• EBITDAR: Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and aircraft rent: revenue less operating costs. It shows whether the flying itself pays, however the aircraft are financed. The note is it as a share of revenue (the margin).
• Net result: What is left after everything: operating costs, aircraft rent, depreciation, interest and tax.
• RASK: Revenue per available seat-kilometre: revenue divided by seats × kilometres flown, in cents. Compare it with CASK: an airline earns when RASK is higher.
• CASK: Cost per available seat-kilometre, in cents. Long flights, dense cabins and full utilisation lower it; short hops and expensive airports raise it.
• Yield: What passengers pay per kilometre flown (cargo: per kg). Higher fares raise yield; long routes have lower yields than short ones.
• Company value: Net assets (what the airline owns less what it owes) plus four times its annualised operating profit. It is what most worlds are won on and what the board and the stock market look at.
• Forward bookings: Tickets already sold for flights in the next 60 days. The money is in your cash now but is owed to passengers until they fly, so do not spend it as profit.
• Postings: Entries in the ledger for the period and filter shown.
• Money in: Everything credited to cash in the period shown.
• Money out: Everything paid out of cash in the period shown.
• Net: Money in less money out over the period shown.
• Cash now: The bank balance at this moment.
• Against budget: The year so far against the approved budget, over finished months: positive is ahead of plan.
• Board expects: The operating result the board will approve a budget for: last months' results over a year, 5% better, or half the loss.
• Prepared by: Who drafted the budget: a CFO by skill, or the finance department without one (optimistic).
• Year to date, finished months: The operating result of the year's finished months, against what the budget planned for them.

Pricing and passengers

• Directions priced: Each route counts twice, once each way, because each direction has its own fares and its own market.
• Average fare level: Your fares against the reference fare (what the established carriers charge for the distance), averaged over directions by departures. 100% matches the market; a newcomer usually fills best at 85–90%.
• Contribution / week: What your flights earn a week above their direct costs (fuel, fees, catering, handling) in the market model, at today's fares. Salaries, rent and overheads are paid either way, so they are not taken off.
• More at the best levels: How much more contribution a week the model expects if every direction flew at its best fare level (of 70–130% of reference) instead of today's. Directions worth more than $5k a week or 5% are counted as worth a look; open them on the pricing desk.
• SkyRate: Your star rating from passenger reviews over the last 12 months. Stars need 30 reviews: five from 8.5 out of 10, four from 7.5, three from 6, two from 4.5.
• SkyRate stars: Your star rating from passenger reviews over the last 12 months (see Reviews).
• Score, 12 months: The average review score out of 10 over the last 12 months: seat and punctuality count most, then crew, food, ground service and value.
• Best rated: The part of the trip reviewers rate highest, against the world average.
• Worst rated: The part of the trip reviewers rate lowest: usually the cheapest thing to fix for better stars.
• Lost bags mentioned: Reviews that mention a lost bag. Each costs two points off that review's score; bag tracking on Customer care cuts them.
• Ticket revenue, 28 days: What tickets earned over the last 28 days, before extras.
• Bags, seats and extras: Revenue from extras over the last 28 days: checked bags, seat choice, priority and fare-family upgrades.
• No-shows: Booked passengers who did not turn up. Overbooking fills their seats; set it on Fares & extras.
• Denied boarding: Passengers bumped from overbooked flights. They are owed compensation in many countries, so a few are fine and many are not.
• Awareness where you fly: How well travellers know your airline in the cities you fly from, weighted by departures. Unknown airlines win fewer passengers: about ×0.62 at 5% awareness, ×1 when fully known.
• Campaign budgets: What your marketing campaigns cost a week, across the cities you campaign in.
• Marketing, 30 d: What campaigns and advertising cost over the last 30 days.
• Compensation, 30 days: What passenger-rights laws made you pay for long delays, cancellations and bumped passengers over the last 30 days.
• Meals and hotels: Care for delayed passengers (meals from two hours, a hotel after six). It is owed even when the delay is not your fault.
• 3 h+ late: Flights three or more hours late: under EU rules these owe compensation unless weather, air traffic control or other extraordinary circumstances caused them.
• Bumped: Passengers denied boarding on overbooked flights.
• Share of members' flying: The share of your passengers who are loyalty members.
• Points outstanding: Points members hold and have not spent: a promise of future award seats.
• Owed in award flights: What the outstanding points would cost you in seats at your award chart's prices.

Operations

• Waiting on you: Operations decisions waiting for your call. Past the deadline the engine decides.
• On time, last 24 h: Flights in the last 24 hours that left within 15 minutes.
• Cancelled, last 24 h: Flights cancelled in the last 24 hours.
• Running late, next 24 h: Departures in the next 24 hours expected to leave late, from the inbound aircraft, crew, weather and congestion.
• Calls, last 24 h: Recovery decisions made in the last 24 hours, yours and the engine's.
• Safety score: 0–100; 70 is typical. It comes from fleet condition and checks, crew skill and training, fatigue and your safety department. Lower scores mean more incidents and dearer insurance.
• Insurance loading: How much more (or less) than standard your insurance costs, from your safety score and recent incidents.
• Random delays: Ground and air traffic delays against an airline with no Director of Operations: a good director cuts them by up to 30%.
• Technical faults: Technical faults against the baseline: a Technical Director cuts them by up to 30%, on top of what your mechanics do.
• Sales pull: The reputation points a Commercial Director adds in passengers' choice of airline.
• Own handling saves: What your own ground agents save a month in handling fees at the stations where you have them, against using the airports' handlers for everything.
• Management payroll: What your department heads and ground agents cost a month, with employer costs.
• Safety audit: Your last safety audit's grade and when the next is due. A good grade lifts reputation; a fail grounds trust.
• Last 12 months: Occurrences, serious incidents and accidents in the last 12 months.
• Expected a year: How many incidents to expect a year at your safety score and number of departures.

Fleet

• Airframes: Aircraft you operate, by status.
• Utilisation: Block hours a day per flying aircraft over 30 days. Short haul flies 8–10, long haul 12–15; low utilisation means aircraft paid for and sitting idle.
• Contribution per block hour: What an hour of flying earns after direct costs and the aircraft's ownership (rent or depreciation). Compare types to see which earn their keep.
• Fleet value (owned): What your owned aircraft would sell for, by age and condition.
• Aircraft families: Related types share pilots, spares and cover aircraft; fewer families mean cheaper crews and easier recovery.

Board and standing

• Board confidence: 0–100, 60 to start. It moves at each monthly meeting with your progress on the objectives, and falls with negative cash or administration. High confidence lets you ask for funds; low confidence makes the board lose patience.
• Objectives on track: This season's objectives where you are on course for where the board expects you by now.
• Chair: The chair of your board, who signs its letters.

Network and connections

• Connecting markets: City pairs you sell as a connection through a hub.
• Connecting pax / week: Passengers a week flying two of your flights via a hub.
• Connecting revenue / week: What connecting passengers pay a week, split between their two legs.
• Planner's gain / week: What the banking planner's suggested departure times would add a week, in connections and better hours.
• Missed their connection: Connecting passengers whose first flight was too late. They are rebooked, sent to other carriers or put up in hotels, at your cost.
• Connected: Connecting passengers who made their onward flight.
• Sent to other carriers: Connecting passengers you had to rebook on another airline after a missed connection, at your cost.
• Tickets and hotels: What missed connections cost in tickets on other airlines and hotel nights.
• Compensation: Passenger-rights compensation owed for missed connections that arrived three or more hours late.

Cargo, charter and contracts

• Cargo revenue, 30 d: What freight earned over the last 30 days, in passenger holds and freighters; the note is its share of all revenue.
• Tonnes flown: Freight carried, a week on average, with how much of it connected at a hub.
• Offloaded: Freight booked that did not fit: passengers' bags go first, then weight and volume limits. A lot of it means a lane wants more capacity or a higher rate.
• Freighters: Your freighter fleet, and what it earned over 30 days after direct costs and rent.
• Cargo: Freight carried on this route, in tonnes a departure.
• Load by weight: How full the hold or freighter flew by weight, against the payload the aircraft can lift on this distance.
• Revenue / kg: What a kilo of freight paid on average, against the market rate for the distance in the note. A lower rate wins more of the lane.
• Cargo share: Your share of the freight market between the two cities, both ways.
• Charter revenue, 30 d: What charter flights earned over 30 days.
• Charter compensation: What you pay a charter customer when you cancel a leg: half its price. Accept charters you can fly.
• Contracts: Charter contracts you hold, and requests from your bases you can bid for.
• ACMI income, 30 d: What other airlines paid for your aircraft and crews on wet lease over 30 days.
• Wet lease costs, 30 d: What you paid over 30 days for aircraft with crews hired from other airlines.
• Contracts held: Contracts you are flying: corporate travel deals (with the trips they bring a month) or public service routes for the ministry.
• Rebates paid, 12 mo: The share of corporate travellers' spending you give back to their companies: the price of their business.
• Open tenders on your routes: Companies asking for travel deals on routes you fly. Bid to win their trips.
• Open tenders: Public service routes the ministry is asking airlines to bid for, and when the next one closes.
• Subsidy, 30 days: What the ministry paid over 30 days for the contract routes you fly.
• Service last month: The share of the contracted flights you flew last month. Under 90%, half the shortfall comes off the subsidy.
• Package sales, 30 days: Holiday packages (flight and hotel) sold over 30 days.
• Hotel rooms, 30 days: What your hotel allotments cost over 30 days. The hotel is paid every night, sold or not.
• Result, 30 days: Package sales less the hotels. The seats travellers take were empty anyway, so they cost almost nothing.
• Rooms filled: The share of your allotted hotel rooms with travellers in them. Empty rooms are paid for anyway.
• Routes on a deal: Routes with an airport incentive: lower landing and handling fees while you keep the promised frequency.
• Incentives, 12 mo: What airport deals saved you in fees over 12 months, after any claw-back for missed frequency.
• Schemes open: Airport incentive schemes you can sign up to; new ones come on the 1st of each month.
• At risk: Deals where you flew below the promised frequency last month: keep it up, or the airport claws the discount back.

Ground and onboard service

• Ground services, 30 days: What lounges, check-in counters and fast track cost over 30 days.
• Lounge guests a day: Passengers using lounges a day, and their share of all passengers (premium passengers and top-tier members).
• Lounge visits, 30 days: Lounge visits over 30 days, in your own lounges and contracted ones.
• Lounge visits: Lounge visits over the period, and what they cost.
• Partner guests, 30 days: Codeshare and alliance partners' passengers using your lounges; the partners pay for them.
• Longest check-in queue: The longest wait at your check-in in the busiest hour. Over 25 minutes, passengers reach the gate late and departures slip.
• Fitting out, 30 days: One-off spending on fitting out lounges and kiosks. It is capital, not in the operating result.
• Rent, counters and fast track, 30 days: What check-in counters, fast track lanes and lounge rent and staff cost over 30 days.
• Own check-in: Stations with your own check-in counters instead of the handler's shared desks: shorter queues, better reviews.
• Fast track: Stations with a fast track lane for premium passengers and top members.
• Queues over 25 min: Stations where check-in queues pass 25 minutes at the busiest hour, so departures slip.
• Own lounges: Airports where you run your own lounge.
• Under contract: Airports where another operator's lounge takes your guests on contract; elsewhere they pay walk-in passes.
• Handling revenue, 30 days: What other airlines paid you for handling their flights over 30 days, against equipment and offices in the note.
• Turnarounds a day: Flights your ground agents turn around a day, against how many they could take.
• Outside contracts: Other airlines whose flights you handle.
• Quality: How well your agents handle a turnaround, against the airport's own handler at 1: better quality means shorter ground delays.
• Catering, 30 days: What catering cost over 30 days, and per passenger.
• Caterer quality: Your caterers' quality, weighted by departures; 1.00 is standard. Better food lifts reviews and comfort.
• Stations under contract: Stations where you have a catering contract. Elsewhere you pay spot rates, a premium on every meal.
• Double-catered: Short return legs loaded at your base for both ways, saving a dearer outstation catering.
• Amenities, 30 days: What amenity kits, laundry and replacements cost over 30 days, and per passenger.
• Laundry price: What washing bedding and headsets costs at your hub.
• Brand deals: Cosmetics brands supplying your amenity kits: prestige for the cabin and sometimes a subsidy.
• Entertainment and Wi-Fi: What entertainment and Wi-Fi cost, with what Wi-Fi passes and onboard ads brought in.
• Wi-Fi and ad revenue: What Wi-Fi passes and onboard advertising earned over 30 days.
• Wi-Fi take-up: The share of passengers who go online. Free Wi-Fi gets far more users and wins passengers; paid passes earn money.
• Licences, data and service: Content licences, satellite data and screen upkeep over 30 days.
• Onboard result: Wi-Fi and ad revenue less its costs. It leaves out the extra passengers good entertainment wins, so a small loss can still pay.
• Fleet equipped: Aircraft with screens or Wi-Fi fitted.
• Wi-Fi and onboard ads: Revenue from Wi-Fi passes and onboard advertising, against content and data costs.
• Tax-free sales: Duty-free sales on international flights: either your commission from a concession, or the whole margin if you run it in-house.
• Tax-free sales, 30 days: What tax-free sales earned over 30 days: an 18% commission from the concession, or the margin less stock and handling in-house.
• Routes selling: Routes where tax-free may be sold: international, and not inside the EU.
• Baggage handling: What checking passengers' bags cost, and how many bags a passenger checks.

Loyalty

• Points earned, 28 days: Points members earned flying with you (and partners) over 28 days.
• Points redeemed, 28 days: Points members spent on award flights over 28 days.
• A point is worth to members: What a point buys in award flights, against your award chart. When award seats are hard to find, points are worth less and members lose interest.
• Award passengers, 28 days: Passengers flying on points over 28 days. They take seats that would otherwise fly empty or be sold.
• Award seats taken: The share of the award seats you release that members use.
• Partner redemptions, 28 days: Awards your members took on partner airlines; you pay the partner for them.
• Award fees: The cash fee on each award ticket, short haul and long haul.
• Card income, 12 mo: What the bank paid over 12 months for the co-branded credit card: points it buys and fees.
• Cardholders: Members who carry your co-branded card.
• Members: Loyalty programme members. Banks offer a co-branded card from 3,000.
• Points sold to the bank: Points the card's bank bought to give its cardholders: income now, award seats later.

Ownership, brands and leasing

• Group value: What your group of airlines is worth: the main airline's company value, with each brand it holds counted at its share price.
• Group cash: Cash across the main airline and its brands.
• Operating profit, 28 days: Operating result over 28 days across the group.
• Brands: Airlines you run beside the main one, each with its own name, code and hub.
• Market value: Your airline's value on the stock market: shares × price.
• Founder stake: The share of your airline you still own. Under half, a bidder could take control.
• Stakes held: Shares you own in other airlines.
• Dividends received, 12 mo: Dividends paid to you by airlines you hold shares in, over 12 months.
• Your dividend: The share of each month's operating profit you pay to your shareholders once listed.
• Aircraft leased out: Owned aircraft you have leased to other airlines.
• Rent a month: What lessees pay you a month, on the 1st.
• Free to lease: Owned aircraft flying no rotations and not on offer: they could earn rent instead of standing idle.
• Requests in the market: Airlines looking to lease an aircraft; each request stands for 21 days.
• On order: Aircraft ordered or leased and not yet delivered, with the next delivery date.
• Paid on orders: Deposits and pre-delivery payments made so far, with the balance still to pay.
• Due in 12 months: Order balances and pre-delivery payments falling due in the next year: keep the cash for them.
• Open options: Options to order more aircraft at the price locked in with the first order.
• Head office: Your head office building and since when.
• Desks in use: Desks your office staff need against those you lease. Staff without a desk work from serviced offices at twice the rent.
• Head office cost: Rent, office staff and serviced offices, a month.
• Desk rent: What one leased desk costs a month.
• Facilities: Who runs the head office: a Head of Facilities keeps the right number of desks and negotiates the lease.
• Partners: Interline and codeshare agreements, and your alliance's members.
• Partner passengers: Passengers flying itineraries that combine your flights with a partner's.
• Your share of their fares: Your part of the through fare on partner itineraries, split by leg distance.
• Partnership costs: What codeshares and the alliance cost a month.
• Proposals waiting: Partnership offers waiting for your answer, and yours waiting for theirs.
• Nationality: Your airline's country, from the hub. It decides which traffic rights you need.
• Restricted markets: Countries that allow only a few designated airlines and cap their flights a week.
• Designations held: Your permissions to fly restricted country pairs. Each lapses after 120 days unused.
• Your foreign bases: Bases outside your home country. Inside the European single market you may fly anywhere from them; elsewhere only home.
• Sales running: Your fare sales running now, with their discounts.
• Sale advertising, 30 d: What advertising your fare sales cost over 30 days.
• Rivals' sales running: Fare sales other airlines are running now.
• A network sale costs: What advertising a sale across all your cities would cost.
• Shop revenue, 30 days: What your maintenance shop earned from other airlines over 30 days, with parts and hangar costs in the note.
• Jobs in the hangars: Outside maintenance jobs in work.
• Mechanics on outside work: Your mechanics busy on other airlines' aircraft. It leaves fewer for your own fleet.
• Own fleet cover: Mechanics per aircraft left for your own fleet; 1.5 is full cover. Less raises your faults and check costs.