Load Factor is out now
You run an airline. Not an airport, not a construction site, an airline.
Every runway in Load Factor already exists. There is nothing to build and nothing to lay down. What you get instead is the real world: around 3,100 airports, real traffic between real cities, and a fleet catalogue running from 19-seat turboprops up to the A380.
Five decisions
That's the whole game, and it's deliberately the whole game:
Which aircraft you fly
Which routes you fly them on
What time of day they depart
How many times a week
What you charge
Everything else falls out of those. Passengers choose between your itineraries and your rivals', non-stop or connecting, on price, time and convenience. Which means hub-and-spoke isn't a button you press or a bonus you unlock. If your network makes connecting through one airport genuinely worth it, that airport becomes a hub. If it doesn't, it won't. There is no hub bonus anywhere in the game.
And the things that get in the way
Weather cancels flights and delays them. Fill an hour with too many departures and congestion eats your on-time performance. Aircraft need runway, a heavy long-haul departure won't leave a short field even if the same type lands there happily. Fuel has a price and it moves. Crew, maintenance, landing fees, nav charges and distribution all show up as separate lines in your P&L, so when a route loses money you can see exactly where it went.
Two ways to play
Sandbox hands you the whole world on day one, every aircraft, every route type, every option unlocked.
Career starts you on turboprops, economy-only, domestic, with a modest credit line, and makes you earn the rest. A 38-node certification tree across five branches unlocks jets, widebodies, international and ETOPS authority, premium cabins, your own maintenance and ground handling, and better financing. Nothing in it grants a bonus, every node either opens access to something the game already does, or removes a restriction you started with.
One person made this
I've always loved aviation and business, but the honest truth is that the reality of the two combined is very boring. The entire job of building this has been walking the line between boring and fun, and I'm sure I haven't got it perfect yet.
I'm a one-man band. There will be bugs. Post them in the discussions and I'll work through them.
I'd genuinely rather hear about a problem than have you quietly refund.
Thanks for taking a chance on it.