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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the differences between open worlds and realistic worlds?
Open worlds (O1, O2, ...) have no political boundaries, so you can fly anywhere in the world regardless of your home base. You can lease up to 40% of the gates at any one airport (75% if it's a hub); building a terminal removes this limit.

Realistic worlds (R1, R2, ...) contain real-world political restrictions and additional route taxes and fees. For example, if you are based in country A, you can fly between country A and country B or country A and country C but not between country B and country C, unless an open skies agreement specifically allows for the latter (e.g. the European Union). Certain country pairs have additional flight prohibitions (e.g. between the U.S. and North Korea). You can lease up to 5 gates at any one airport (15 if it's a hub); building a terminal removes this limit.

Special worlds (S1, S2...) usually follow realistic political restrictions but may vary depending on the special rules for that world.


How do connecting passengers work?
Connecting passengers are generated from either your own hubs or a hub of an alliance member. Connecting passengers are shown as the blue part of the loadfactor bar on the route details page (see below). Regular (O&D) passengers are preferable to connecting passengers, as the latter provides half the revenue of a regular passenger. Think of them as filler or a bonus for when you can't fill all your seats. The number of connecting passengers available is proportional to your traffic into the hub. Regular passengers are always boarded before connecting passengers, so if you already have 100% loadfactor on a flight, connecting passengers will not be boarded.



Note: to get connecting passengers on a flight, the route must depart or arrive at either your own hub or an alliance member's hub.


What are the benefits of a hub?
Hubs provide you with connecting passengers (see above) on routes departing/arriving at that hub. However, a hub also doubles your gate rental fees at that airport (due to extra staffing costs).


What are the benefits of a terminal?
Building or buying a terminal allows you to have more gates at an airport than the maximum number of gates you can lease. On realistic worlds, you can lease up to 5 gates (15 if it's a hub) at any one airport. On open worlds, you can lease up to 40% of the airport (75% if it's a hub). When building a terminal, you can build as many gates as you wish (cost permitting). Gates you own at a terminal do not expire (since you built and own them) and cost half the monthly rental fee of a leased gate at the same airport.


What are the benefits of an alliance?
Alliance hubs provide you with connecting passengers (see above) on routes departing/arriving at that hub.

Note: codesharing on specific routes is not currently possible. In future versions, your alliance's network breadth will affect your airline image, a factor used to determine passenger preference.


What does the hourglass icon on my route list mean?
The hourglass and gray highlighting indicates that a route is in the queue to be recalculated in the background. This occurs after an airline on the route (not neccessarily yourself) batch modifies aircraft seat or service configurations. These routes will be automatically updated in the background. If you wish, you can also manually update an route individually by clicking the gear icon and clicking "Save" in the ticket price window.


Why is my aircraft's buy/sell price lower than its current value?
The market price of an aircraft is affected by the number of aircraft of the same type already on the market. For example, if you try to sell a 737-800 and there are already 30 737-800s on the market, the sell price will be lower than if there are none on the market.


The game's layout and menus are not displaying correctly.
If you are using Internet Explorer 8, please turn compatibility view OFF. Also, IE7 and older versions are not supported. We recommend that you use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or IE9 to play Airline Empires.


Where do I find the forum ID number of a player I wish to set as an authorized manager of my airline?
Navigate to the player's profile. The player's forum ID number will be in the URL before the member name.





I uploaded a new logo or livery for my airline, but it continues to show the old image.
Clear your browser cache by pressing Control + F5 or the equivalent for your browser and operating system.


Why do people hate me?
If you find that your popularity in the chatroom is not where it should be, make sure you follow chat etiquette: don't repeat the same questions over and over again in a short span of time, don't post in all caps, don't post emoticons excessively with little substantive message content, and don't insult other members. Also, if many other people tell you that what you are saying is making them uncomfortable and they don't want to hear it, consider refraining from such topics.