We’ve already gotten acquainted with two types of transport — cars and ships. This week, we’ll explore another type — aviation. Cars will be used as auxiliary transport, just like in the previous task with ships. The next, fifth lesson will be about trains — probably the most interesting type of transport in this game.

By the way, I plan to continue introducing you to this game in the next season. So learn now and gain experience — but that’s for later 😊

And today — ✈️airplanes!🛬

Let’s start the game from the beginning (just a recommendation). Of course, you can continue your previous game if you managed to build a good company and want to keep developing it.

Since we started the game in 1950, only small airports with small aircraft are available. So, if you continue your old companies, the year will probably be different, which will affect the availability of airports and planes. A small airport is available from the start of the game and disappears (can no longer be built) in 1960. However, in 1983, a slightly larger version becomes available.

⚠️Do not send large aircraft to small airports!

I want to build an airport somewhere around here	The road is in the way, but I could have removed it with a bulldozer	The airport is built

Be careful — an airport requires a large, flat area. If you use the bulldozer too much — demolishing buildings or raising and lowering the land — you may not be allowed to build stations.

I built the first airport near my city	And I’ll look for another one — I’ll choose the city with the largest population

Click on the name of the largest city, and the map moved to it	Building an airport here as well

To buy an airplane, you don’t need to build an additional depot — it’s already included in the airport. You just need to click directly on the depot; it’s located in the left corner of the airport.

I click the yellow arrow to set up the orders	and then select the first and second airports in sequence

I launch the airplane and monitor its first flight 😊 Watching to see if there’s any passenger traffic.

The orders are listed	I’m monitoring passengers and mail at the stations

I choose another large city	and build one more airport

As for buying another airplane — it depends on passenger flow. If there are many passengers at the stations, you should buy another plane. But if there are few passengers and little mail, you can create a schedule (a route) so that one plane flies to all these stations in sequence.

Airports🛬

SmallAirport (..1960)	Commuter Airport (1983...)
Size3 x 4	Size4 x 5
City Airport (1955...)	Metropolitan Airport (1980...)
Size6 x 6	Size6 x 6
International Airport (1990--)	Intercontinental Airport (2002.....)
Size7 x 7	Size11 x 9

Airports, first of all, come in different sizes — measured in tiles on the game map. When building and planning to construct a more modern one later, you should reserve enough land in advance.

There’s a dedicated button for this in the Landscape tools.

Have you noticed that when you remove a station, its name still appears on the map but in gray? That’s intentional — it allows you to demolish an old small airport and build a new one in its place. The new airport will inherit the old name, so all your vehicles will keep this stop in their schedules.

After some time, though, the gray name disappears — and if you haven’t built the new airport by then, the vehicles’ routes will contain an invalid station.

Demolished the old one...	...but can’t build the new one

You can restore your rating by planting trees, serving the town (transporting goods and passengers) — over time, the rating will recover enough to allow construction again.

Airports can be divided into two categories — small and large. Accordingly, there are small and large airplanes. Any aircraft has a chance of crashing upon landing, but for large planes landing at small airports, that chance is higher.

Transfer🛬

In the previous lesson, I already explained transfer, and you can review that lesson if needed. But transfer is very important in this game, so I’ll repeat it here in the context of airports.

The city is very large, and the airport is often located on the outskirts, not covering the whole area. That’s why it can be useful to transport passengers or goods from other stations to the airport.

Don’t confuse Unload and Transfer — they are different things.
Unload means you’ve brought passengers to their final destination; they leave because this is the station they wanted to reach.
Transfer means you’ve brought passengers who are waiting for another vehicle to carry them to their final destination.

Transfer is basically transit, like a transfer station in real life — when you switch from one metro line to another (because the two lines aren’t directly connected).

I’ll build an airport near the city, then place several bus stops around the city and transport passengers to the airport (transfer).

Here I want to place an airport, but the terrain isn’t flat. After modifying the landscape, the town might get upset with my actions and refuse to allow station construction — keep that in mind.	I leveled the area and tried placing the airport — had to flatten a bit more land. It’s a good idea to reserve some extra space for future airport upgrades.

I was really worried that after changing the terrain, the airport wouldn’t be allowed to be built — but it was! Also, airports have a noise level, and because of that, the town might sometimes refuse construction.	After building the airport, I leveled the surrounding area once more. This airport is 6×6, but I plan to upgrade to a 7×7 later — so I’m reserving some land to prevent the town from placing roads or buildings there.

An airport, like any other station, has a coverage area.	Here you can see which buildings are covered by the station — passengers won’t come from buildings outside this zone.
The coverage button is also available for the town — red marks show the buildings not covered by any stations. This helps when choosing spots for bus stops.

In the depot, I bought three new buses, and now I need to create a shared stop for the buses and airplanes.
I build the bus stop either right next to the airport or while holding CTRL.

When holding CTRL, a window appears allowing you to select which station the new stop will connect to — I chose the airport.
Then I click on any bus station and the airport. At the airport station, I select the Transfer option.

Refit

By default, an airplane carries passengers and a small amount of mail.
However, planes can transport more than just passengers — they can be refitted to carry certain other types of cargo.

Transporting valuables is quite difficult, since it’s hard to place an airport close to a bank.
Goods are not a primary resource, but a secondary one — meaning you first need to transport resources like wood or oil to produce them.
Goods are delivered to cities, but sometimes cities accept them, and sometimes they don’t.

So, in this task, we’ll simply refit the plane for mail transport.

Above the yellow “Orders” arrow, there’s a button with two cubes — this is the Refit button, which allows you to change the type of cargo your vehicle carries.
I’m going to refit the airplane for mail transport only.

🚁Helicopters🚁

In addition to airplanes, the game also features helicopters.
The heliport, which occupies just one tile, becomes available in 1963.

|I’m building a heliport in one town|and another heliport in a different town|

However, the helicopter itself must be purchased at the nearest airport, since dedicated heliports (with their own hangars) will only appear later — in 1976.

The nearest airport turned out to be quite far away 😕

I select the helicopter (1), click the yellow arrow to set up orders (2), and then choose the stations (3, 4) that this helicopter will travel between.

For the second helicopter, I created its task list by copying the orders from Helicopter 2. But I did this while holding CTRL — this way, a shared order list was created.

If I later change the orders for Helicopter 2, they will automatically update for Helicopter 3 as well.

🚁Helidepot(1976) and Helistation(1980)🚁

In 1976, the Helidepot becomes available, and in 1980 — the Helistation.
From this point on, helicopters can undergo maintenance not only at airports but also at their own depots.
You can also purchase helicopters directly there.

🛬Homework🛫

To complete the task, you can either continue one of your old saves or start a new game.

✨1 Two Airports – choose two cities and connect them with air transport (Airport1 + Airport2).

✨2 Airport + Transfer – choose one of the largest cities and build an airport there (Airport3). Since the airport doesn’t cover the entire city, place several bus stops and mail stations around the city. Use transfer from these stations to deliver passengers and mail to the airport.

✨3 Refit – convert a plane to carry a different type of cargo, for example mail. (Bonus: you can transport valuables or goods, but this is optional and more difficult.)

✨4 Upgrade – buy land around your airports. If that’s not possible, build Airport4 in such a way that it can be upgraded to a more modern version later. Reserve land for future airport expansion. Try to replace an old airport with a newer one. If the authorities don’t allow it, either wait or plant trees in the city, then try again. Even if upgrading fails, the task will still be positively evaluated — the key is to understand why it didn’t work and what steps are needed.

✨5 Helicopters – if a depot is already available, build a Helidepot or Helistation; if not, simply build two Heliports in different cities. Buy helicopters at the nearest airport, Helidepot, or Helistation. Assign tasks to the helicopters and clone additional helicopters as needed.

At the end, as always, check the apartment window and the graphs showing cargo delivery and profit.

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Good luck 🍀 on your task!