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            ___                          __      _
           /   |  ___    _____  ____    / /_    (_) ____
          / /| | / _ \  / ___/ / __ \  / __ \  / / /_  /
         / ___ |/  __/ / /    / /_/ / / /_/ / / /   / /_
        /_/  |_|\___/ /_/     \____/ /_.___/ /_/   /___/     _____
____________  __________ _____ ______________________ _______ ___(_)_______
__  ___/_  / / /___  __ \_  _ \__  ___/__  ___/_  __ \__  __ \__  / _  ___/
_(__  ) / /_/ / __  /_/ //  __/_  /    _(__  ) / /_/ /_  / / /_  /  / /__
/____/  \__,_/  _  .___/ \___/ /_/     /____/  \____/ /_/ /_/ /_/   \___/
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                             Aerobiz Supersonic
                               FAQ/Walkthrough

                               April 17, 2009
                                 Version 3.0

                       Written by:  Dan Simpson
                            Email:  [email protected]

  When emailing, use this subject:  Aerobiz Supersonic v 3.0


                               Email Policy:
                               ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
        If you see any mistakes, or have anything that you want to add
        please email me!  I will, of course, give you full credit for
        your addition, and be eternally grateful to you.




                                     Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at:
  http://www.gamefaqs.com/

Eric Little ([email protected]) contributed greatly to the content in the
3.0 version. Per his request, I did not tag each addition from him, however
I will summarize the sections he sent, or contributed to, in here:  Difficulty
Levels, City Statistics, Airport slots, Plane upkeep, Business ventures and
promotions, Building profitable routes, Inter-regional flights, Regional
flights, Scenarios, and Putting it all together.

If you are a webmaster and wish to post this on your web page, please email
me first.  And if you do post this FAQ on your site, please make an attempt
to keep it up to date.  There is nothing worse than getting emails from
people who saw an old version asking about things that are already in the
newer versions.  Well, maybe there are worse things, but it IS annoying!

This FAQ looks best in Courier New at about 9 points.

This Document is Copyright 1999-2005 by Dan Simpson
Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei

I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the
creation of this game.  This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as
NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it.  You
may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

__________________
What's New in 3.0:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
   Eric Little sent in a huge amount of content, which I added where
   appropriate. Per his request, I did not tag each contribution, but a
   summary of what he sent in can be found above. Added the scenario 4
   planes from Marsk Ong.

 For a complete Version History, check out the Final Words Section at the end
 of the FAQ.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table of Contents:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1. The Scenarios
 2. Difficulty Levels
 3. The Planes
  3.1 Plane Upkeep
 4. Game Basics
 5. Routes
 6. Cities
 7. Other Ways to get Money
 8. Other Strategies

 Final Words...



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The Scenarios
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 There are 4 scenarios, each has different jets because each is set in a
 different time period.  Each scenario gives you 20 years to be the best, and
 each year has 4 quarters.

     1. The Dawn of the Jet Age  -- 1955 to 1975
     2. Air Travel Takes Off     -- 1970 to 1990
     3. Airlines Cover the Globe -- 1985 to 2005
     4. Supersonic Travel        -- 2000 to 2020

 For a list of which era has which planes, look in the next section "2. The
 Planes" for the list.

 After you select your era, you then select a difficulty level, from 1 to 5.
 One being easy, five being hard.

 Then you select how many human players will play.  If this is your first time
 with the game, you may want to play on DEMO.  You will get to see how the
 computer strategizes by watching 4 computer players playing against each
 other!  For an easier game, select and play more than 1 human player.  This
 would cut back on actual opponents to compete against.

   Note:  Due to the amount of wars in the middle east in the "Dawn of the Jet
          Age" scenario, it isn't recommended that you have any dealings in
          the mid-east in that scenario.

 Remember that history is set in stone, and many events like wars and the
 Olympics happen exactly the same every time.  Each region changes
 significantly from scenario to scenario, with the city stats changing each
 time.  Political events around the world will change relations between
 countries and will decide nationality of others.  Pay attention to these as
 they may have a profound affect on your airline (and may not).

 The biggest differences between the scenarios are the cities’ stats.  Notice
 that in Scenario 4 flights to Noumea, Pappete, and Nandi are fairly good,
 while in Scenario 1 they are doomed to failure.  Why is this?  Because they
 haven’t become viable tourist locations yet, they are not yet developed,
 something or another.  Their stats increase with time, just as Tokyo’s
 population changes radically over time.  However, the US and European
 populations change little between the scenarios because in real life they
 have a lower birth rate.  Take note of differences such as these between the
 scenarios, and realize that not all flights are equally profitable in every
 scenario.  (Obviously, technology improves with each scenario, and more and
 more possibilities come available with new aircraft.)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Difficulty Levels
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 In Aerobiz Supersonic, you have five difficulty levels from which to choose.
 Most obviously, the amount of starting cash for each player is decreased as
 difficulty is increased, and starting provisions are lowered in terms of
 initial slots.

 But what else is different about the difficulty levels?  My observations are
 that the computer works more and more "realisticly" as you move forward in
 difficulty level. For example, if you compete with another airline in the
 exact same spot (let us choose London—Athens) and you lower the price
 significantly, in real life you would get all of the passengers from the
 existent airline.  That is how capitalism works.

 However, in the easier levels, this does not happen—it takes time to
 deteriorate “customer loyalty” that is really quite annoying when you are
 trying to get that last region.  Of course it works both ways—as soon as
 Sunrise moves in to New York, you are left on the defensive, and this creates
 a situation where prices fall and the airlines lose money.

 As the difficulty levels increase, so does the computer’s response to your
 actions.  For example, if you open a competing route that is a lower price
 than the computer’s, the computer will often not react on Level 1 but will
 react perfectly in Level 5.  Small changes are common on Level 1, with
 increasing profoundness as you move to Level 5.  On Levels 3 and 4 the
 computer begins competing with prices and number of flights.  Levels 1 and 2
 are marked by the computer just giving up after a couple of turns of a non-
 profitable flight.  Now this is not all to say that the computer doesn’t ever
 change its routes on Level 1 and always does on Level 5, but this is a strong
 correlation.  Ironically, the computer will never factor in the costs of a
 certain plane, in terms of maintenance and fuel.  So you will often see
 western countries buying those crappy Russian planes after 1985 because they
 are cheaper (sometimes).  Don’t be fooled!

 Have you ever seen the computer promote its businesses?  Rare, isn’t it?
 Actually, it is quite common if you play on Level 5.  What happens is that
 they will set up a route that does not profit for whatever reason and its
 reaction is to buy a business, usually a very expensive one (like the
 pleasure boat in Algiers).  Well, when the company is stuck for lack of
 money, but still has a bit to do something with, they send their people to
 promote that pleasure boat.  Usually, they do it every year and they often
 profit from doing so.

 Placement of computer opponents is another difference between the levels.  In
 Level 1, you are guaranteed at least one hub (often two) south of the
 equator.  If you only have one, you are guaranteed a communist capital.  You
 probably won’t have competition in your own region, but if you do it will be
 the easiest ever (like Vancouver in Scenario 4 or Bangkok in Scenario 1).
 That means it should be a cake walk, you really can only lose if you yourself
 have been placed south of the border and are facing Tokyo or something.  The
 computer will do that to you, but you would be amazed in Level 1 how many
 passengers in SE Asia prefer you as AirNile flying from Beijing.  Now in
 Levels 2 and 3 you are mostly guaranteed competition in your home region.  I
 usually allow the computer to take it over, and waste its money building
 flights in Africa.  I am then building interregional flights that make bang
 and when they go broke, I take back the home region in a sweep.  Otherwise,
 what you end up with is the computer trying to take its home region by making
 a flight to EVERY SINGLE CITY in the region.  This is really annoying in
 Level 5 where cumulative cities in a single region is a factor in passenger
 totals and they are easy to sway by the computer’s willingness to shift
 prices each and every turn -- who wants to modify every price of every flight
 every quarter?

 In Levels 4 and 5, the computer is not kidding around.  They place the
 opposing three hubs in some of the best spots in the game—London, Paris,
 Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, LA, Chicago, Sydney.  (Sydney is the worst—
 because you must compete from Sydney as well because routes from Auckland and
 Perth are horrible.)  Often they do not place competition in your home region
 as the computer often “gangs up” on you in that region, everyone wanting a
 piece of you.  Especially when you are New York or Tokyo—those flights to
 Honolulu, LA, Singapore and Bangkok are yummy.  The computer tends to make
 very good decisions with international flights in these levels, often adding
 unnecessary yet profitable flights like Cairo—New York, Mexico City—London,
 even Sydney—New Delhi (amazingly profitable).  Ever try Tehran or New Delhi—
 New York?  Incredible!

 Okay, so the computer is still AI, and is far from perfect.  First off, its
 priority is in passengers and not money, which is mistake number one.
 Normally what happens is that the airline stuck in Tehran decides it would be
 best to expand to Cairo so that it can capture a second region, but in the
 middle of creating its desert empire it goes bankrupt (why is the computer
 buying those B747s to go from Cairo to Tunis?)  This becomes really annoying
 on Level 5 because the computer calculates a need for more and more
 passengers, resulting in 9 flights between Tokyo and Hong Kong, -50% price
 with a B747-400.  How do you compete with that?!  (See a following section.)
 So remember in dealing with the computer in Level 5 that it just wants
 passengers, and cares little about earning money (at least with domestic
 flights).  The other fatal mistake is the use of that Russian aircraft when
 Boeing is cheap to western countries.  But the computer will never learn.

 One final note, the “beggars” usually appear only from non-influential
 countries on Level 5, and rarely appear from 1st world countries like Europe,
 the US or Japan like on Level 1.  If you ever get the chance to do that with
 the EU in Scenarios 3 or 4, and you have the cash to spare, it is very worth
 it.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. The Planes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Old planes do go obsolete, so if you don't see all the old planes, that's
 why.

   Note:  During the era of the Cold War (which is up to 1989) non-russian
          airlines cannot buy Russian planes (Ilyushin and Tupolev) and
          Russian airlines cannot buy non-russian planes.

   Note:  When new planes are first introduced, all you get is to see it, they
          won't start production on that plane until the next year.

   Note:  Prices of planes listed is the Initial price, the prices do decrease
          over time.

   Note:  If a given plane has a second year listed, then that means that
          while you are playing a scenario that plane will be taken off the
          market.  Also realize that some planes are only available in certain
          scenarios, so don't panic if you don't see something even though it
          should have been available.

 Plane list is sorted by Builder, then by Years:

          * Indicates Supersonic plane

          Name:        Builder:   Years:    Range:   Seats:   Price:
          ¯¯¯¯¯        ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯   ¯¯¯¯¯¯    ¯¯¯¯¯¯   ¯¯¯¯¯¯   ¯¯¯¯¯¯
          Concorde*    Aerospat.  1976-79     4000      120  110000k
          A300         Airbus     1975        3620      350   60000k
          A320         Airbus     1982        4180      180   28000k
          A300-600     Airbus     1985        5500      370   62000k
          A310         Airbus     1985        6000      280   47500k
          A340         Airbus     1993        8870      330   99000k
          A360         Airbus     2005        3750      500  175000k
          A370         Airbus     2008        4500      200   34000k
          A700*        Airbus     2010        3750      350  155000k
          A720*        Airbus     2010        2810      200  125000k
          B707-120     Boeing     1958        4180      140   42300k
          B707-320     Boeing     1960-82     5560      160   45000k
          B727-100     Boeing     1964-71     2310      110   21600k
          B727-200     Boeing     1967-84     2620      150   33000k
          B737-200     Boeing     1968-88     1500      110   24750k
          B747-200     Boeing     1970        6750      450  134000k
          B747-300     Boeing     1983        6750      500  112500k
          B737-300     Boeing     1985        1620      120   34100k
          B757         Boeing     1985        2930      200   35750k
          B767         Boeing     1985        4060      230   38500k
          B747-400     Boeing     1989        7180      550  135000k
          B777         Boeing     1995        5500      360   54000k
          B2000-HJ     Boeing     2007        7500     1000  400000k
          B2001-SST*   Boeing     2008        4060      300  225000k
          B747-500     Boeing     2004        7000      600  195000k
          IL14         Ilyushin   1954-60     1870       30    8000k
          IL62         Ilyushin   1965        4930      150   24000k
          IL62M        Ilyushin   1970        5620      160   28800k
          IL62MK       Ilyushin   1978        5500      170   34000k
          IL86         Ilyushin   1981        2560      350   37800k
          IL96-300     Ilyushin   1988        6870      300   45000k
          L1049        Lockheed   1951        4750       90   19800k
          L1011        Lockheed   1972-84     4500      350   72000k
          DC6          MDC        1947        4000       80   11200k
          DC8-30       MDC        1959        5120      140   43200k
          DC8-50       MDC        1961        6060      150   44550k
          DC9-30       MDC        1966        1500      120   23400k
          DC8-60       MDC        1967        5930      240   40800k
          DC10         MDC        1971        5560      350   67500k
          MD80         MDC        1981        3560      150   33000k
          MD11         MDC        1991        7750      360  102000k
          MD12         MDC        1995        8000      400  120000k
          MD100        MDC        1998        4680      200   36000k
          MD1*         MDC        2009        5000      300  196000k
          TU104        Tupolev    1955        2500       50   13500k
          TU124        Tupolev    1962        3500       40   18000k
          TU134        Tupolev    1967        2310       70   17600k
          TU154        Tupolev    1972        2430      150   21600k
          TU144        Tupolev    1977-79     2620      140   81000k
          TU154B       Tupolev    1977        2500      160   25200k
          TU204        Tupolev    1989        2870      210   26000k
          Caravelle    Sud        1959-72     1500       80   30000k
          Viscount     Vickers    1953        1680       70   20000k

 Korath sent me the following:

   First, in the list of planes, depending on your starting home region
   (though your city choice may not matter), your choice at the start of
   the game, will affect how much planes will cost you.  The prices you
   have listed are for a company based in Europe (Africa, Australia,
   S.America, and the Mid-east may also have the same prices, as I did not
   check prices for companies located in those regions).

   My test cities were London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo.  I choose London
   and Paris to see if there were differences within region, but they were
   exactly the same.  A Russian city (Moscow for example) may still be
   different than London, or Paris, but I don't want to check.

   One note, Boeing prices were the same regardless of region.

   As an example, starting in the Supersonic age, these are the prices for
   companies in these cities:

        London/Paris   New York      Tokyo
   A340       99,000    110,000    110,000
   B747-400  135,000    135,000    135,000
   B777       54,000     54,000     54,000
   IL96-300   45,000     45,000     45,000
   MD11      102,000     81,600     81,600
   MD12      120,000     96,000     96,000
   MD100      36,000     28,800     28,800
   TU204      26,000     28,600     28,600

   So while you shouldn't remove the Price column, it would be recommended
   to put a big note that these are Europe (and possibly other region)
   based companies (except when it comes to Boeing).

AlbertC79 sent this:

 The price of planes is determined by one or both of two factors: The number
 of planes from that particular manufacturer you are holding in your stock,
 and your company's relations to the country home to said manufacturer.  The
 following lists the aircraft manufacturers and their homebase countries:

   Manufacturer            Homebase
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Boeing                  United States
   McDonnell Douglas (MDC) United States
   Lockheed                United States
   Airbus                  France (EC)*
   Sud-Aviation            France
   Aerospatiale            France
   Vickers                 United Kingdom
   Ilyushin                Soviet Union (Russia/EC)**
   Tupolev                 Soviet Union (Russia/EC)**

   *  After 1993 in Scenario 3, and in the beginning of Scenario 4, France is
      a member of the European Community (EC) and EC will be considered the
      homebase for Airbus.

   ** The Soviet Union collapses and becomes Russia in Scenario 3, and in
      Scenario 4, Russia becomes a member of the European Community (EC).

 As far as how price is affected via the number of planes on your airline's
 stock, if your aircraft stock contains more than half of a particular
 manufacturer's planes, you will get a 10% discount upon ordering more.
 Here's an example: Your company owns 20 planes.  They consist of 6 Boeing
 B747s, 5 Boeing B737s, 4 Airbus A300s, and 5 MDC DC-10s.  The breakdown is 11
 planes from Boeing and 9 planes combined from Airbus and MDC.  This means
 more than half your planes in stock are from Boeing, and if you choose to
 order more planes from Boeing, they will give you a 10% discount!  However if
 you choose to buy 2 more planes from either Airbus, MDC, or another
 manufacturer, this will shift the balance of planes in your stock, and you
 will have more than 50% of non-Boeing planes, and if you choose to order more
 Boeing planes in the future, the 10% discount will no longer apply.

 A plane's price is also affected by your company's relations to the country
 that is home to its manufacturer (mentioned above).  Your company will get a
 10% discount on planes from a manufacturer if you have great relations (green
 guys handshaking) with its homebase nation.  Here's an example: Your
 company's homebase is in Beijing, and you wish to purchase some Boeing
 747-400s.  Relations between China and the US (Boeing homebase) are average
 (orange guys standing apart), so the price Boeing will offer you for a single
 747-400 is $150,000K!  Pretty pricey, so you'd probably hold off on buying
 one.  However in your next quarter, a representative from the U.S. visits
 you, and asks you to make a contribution.  If you accept, relations between
 you (China) and the U.S. will improve from average (orange) to great
 (green)! (Isn't it amazing how a lowly airline can significantly alter the
 course of global PR!  If only the real world worked that way ^_^).  Now visit
 Boeing once more, and you will see the price for a single B747-400 would have
 fallen from $150,000K to $135,000K!  Maybe those annoying representatives
 aren't as bad as we thought. ^_^

 Oh and it gets better!  Both these discounts can be compounded!  If your
 company has more than 50% of a certain manufacturer's planes in stock AND you
 have great relations with the manufacturer's homebase, then you will get a
 20% discount from the manufacturer!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.1 Plane Upkeep
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The stats on the airplane itself can also be confusing, at least they were
 for me for a while.  Obvious are the range, the passenger capacity, and the
 name and date of production (and price).  Less obvious are the costs on the
 plane.  The wrench symbolizes maintenance costs and the fuel pump symbolizes
 fuel costs.  Do not forget that lower numbers are bad; higher numbers are
 better and symbolize efficiency.  Those L1049s in the first scenario are
 sweet because they cost virtually nothing to maintain; however those initial
 jets introduced in the early 1960s guzzle gas and require a lot more
 maintenance, so use them wisely.  Anyways, purchasing planes is covered by
 someone else in this walkthrough, yet I will confirm everything they
 mentioned, as I was even informed on a few pointers.  In case anyone is lost,
 the hangar icon symbolizes how many of that type of plane you have in storage
 and the plane with starts above it is how many planes you have flying in your
 fleet.

 Why two numbers for fuel and maintenance, when they could be joined for one
 simpler statistic?  Two reasons.  One can be changed—you can choose to lower
 your budget for maintenance but cannot change the amount of fuel required to
 fly.  (Never do that.)  The second reason is that when fuel prices skyrocket
 due to war, only the fuel becomes more expensive and the maintenance doesn’t.
 A very few planes have very different statistics between gas and maintenance,
 but when you buy them you ought to take that into consideration; gas guzzlers
 are certain to hurt your profits during wartime, so it is my advice to avoid
 gas guzzlers unless you have little option otherwise.  Obviously, you cannot
 play the game in Scenarios 2-4 without using the Boeing 747, but those are
 profit monsters, regardless of how much gas they use you need to use them on
 your major routes.  But the Russian planes should be largely avoided if
 possible, regardless if Ilyushin offers you “the deal of a lifetime.”  It
 still isn’t a deal my friends, your profitability will suffer and in the long
 run you will be worse off.  Also wait in Scenario 1 for more efficient jet
 planes to come out before upgrading; if you are doing things right, you are
 expanding your routes and making enough money to buy two at a time when those
 DC8-30s come onto the market.

 I suppose the best CEOs would buy planes the one turn before using them, and
 no extras.  This would prevent buying a large sum of expensive planes but
 then running out of money to set up routes.  (This really only happens in
 Level 5 occasionally.)  However, I tend to buy planes in mass if I can afford
 it and worry about it later.  (I am lazy.)


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Game Basics
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The first thing that you have to do in the game is to select a Region to
 start from.  Logically you want a region away from the computer players.
 Here is a small breakdown of the Best Regions to start from:

                              Best Starting Cities:
                              ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
           1.  SE Asia    --  Tokyo, Singapore
           2.  N. America --  New York, Los Angeles
           3.  Europe     --  London, Paris
           4.  Africa     --  Cairo*
           5.  S. America --  Mexico City

           Avoid: Mideast and Australia

           * Cairo has some war troubles, but is still the best city in Africa

 These are the best because of their size, but more importantly they all have
 good locations.  Never get a starting city in the middle of the Region as you
 won't be able to do any Long/Medium distance routes, and the ones you will do
 will be less effective.

 After choosing all the starting cities, you will be given an option to change
 the names of the companies (i.e. Metlink, Sunrise, UK AIR, etc.) and their
 colors.  You will then be given your goals by a staff member, and tossed into
 the scary world of Airline Management!

 ____________
 The Buttons: (from left to right)
 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
   Top - Create New Route, Adjust Routes, Negotiate for Slots, Order/Sell
         Planes, Budget, Business Ventures

   Bottom - Create Hub, Advertising, Staff Meeting, Info, Options, End Turn

 ______
 Slots:
 ¯¯¯¯¯¯
   First off, note the numbers under the various cities in your region.  Those
   are slot numbers.  The higher the number, the more flights into that city
   you can do.  There are a few things to remember with slots:

     - They aren't unlimited.  Eventually every city will run out of slots at
       their airport (given enough demand) and it takes time to build new
       slots.

     - They aren't free.  Slots do cost money, so don't just go around getting
       slots everywhere you MIGHT need them.  In fact, if you don't use all
       your slots after awhile, you may want to return them!

     - In determining the Max amount of flights possible, you have to consider
       how many slots you have in both cities on the flight route, not just
       the city you are flying to.  If you are doing a New York to L.A. and
       NYC has 2 slots and LA has 8, you can only do 2 flights.

     - Remember at the most you can be negotiating for new slots in 4 cities.

   To get new slots, push the STAFF icon (it looks like 2 hands), and send a
   staff member to a city to negotiate for slots.  Depending on relations
   between your company and this city, your negotiations could take as little
   as 3 months (one quarter) or 12 months (4 quarters).  Remember that you
   only have 4 staff members!  You can, if you want, send 2 staff members on
   the same job to speed things up. (Although that doesn't always work)

 _____
 Hubs:
 ¯¯¯¯¯
   To expand to other areas of the world, you will need new Hubs.  They're
   like miniature versions of your home base, allowing you to create new
   routes from them as you would your home base.  Hubs can be created at any
   Green city that you already have slots at.  Use the same logic in selecting
   your hub as you did your home city.  (choose large cities, at an edge of
   the map, like Paris)

 ________
 Tourism:
 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
   Every once in awhile you will see various messages like "Olympics will be
   held in XXXX" or "XXXX is experiencing a boom in tourism.  Take advantage
   of these!  They will give you a large bump in traffic.  Also pay attention
   to warnings about wars about to break out and cut off the route before it
   gets cut off for you.

     Note:  Wars increase the price of oil, which increases your expenses,
            which lowers your profits.  So don't panic if you see a bunch of
            Red Routes after a war breaks out!

 _________________
 Special "Offers":
 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
   Eventually a country will come up to you and ask you to back their new
   proposal with some of your hard earned cash.  What do you get?  Their love.
   Goodie.  It will improve relations with that country's cities, but nothing
   more dramatic than that.  However, this improved relations could mean
   something quite useful like a decrease in the time needed to negotiate for
   slots/hubs/etc., and even get you into places you can't normally get.

 Note:  To switch between regions at any time, use the L and R buttons, and
        use the Y button to select a region on the world map.

 Note:  To speed up text as it is scrolling, hold down one of the ARROW
        buttons.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Routes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Choosing a new route is always a tricky business.  Will there be sufficient
 demand on the route to make it profitable?  Will you be able to charge enough
 to make a GOOD profit?  Is there going to be competition on the route?  And
 once you finish the route, how do you tinker with it to make it even better?

 The maximum amount of routes you can have is 40, so you have to choose wisely
 where to start a new route.

Airport Slots
-------------
 Before we can build routes we need slots.  Simply, you will be allowed to bid
 for 5 slots in any city in the world in the beginning.  You will be allowed
 to bid for more (it goes to 14 quickly) once a route of a city type has been
 made for one turn in a given region.  For example, I am Metlink and I have
 made a flight to Tokyo.  The next turn I put a hub there and send out my
 people to search for slots.  In Bangkok, I can bid for 14, but only 5 in
 Guam, despite the fact that Guam is my home country.  Once I make a flight to
 Guam and let it run a turn (sometimes you need 2 turns), all of the minor
 cities in SE Asia will allow me to grab 14 slots as well.

 There are some restrictions to how many slots you can have in a given
 airport.  This section is of particular interest to those who enjoy the first
 scenario, which is known for its slot shortages.  In your home city, you may
 enjoy 75% of the city’s slots before you are cut off.  In your other hub
 cities, you can get up to 50%.  (A strategy might be to start in SE Asia
 since London and New York often don’t have slot problems, if slot shortage is
 a consistent problem.)  In other cities, you may have up to 14 slots total in
 any minor cities provided that they do not total more than 75% of the slots
 available.  In other major cities, rarely is there a situation where you
 can’t get 14 slots—you can normally get more, but avoid this as it obviously
 is of no advantage to you.  (Slots cost money.)  Time is the other factor—
 this is dependant on your relations with the country.  The best relations are
 3 months for hub city, 6 months for others.  Good relations will require at
 least 6 months for all negotiations with the possibility of 9 months.  Bad
 relations will sometimes allow for 6 months in a hub city, usually take 9 and
 can take 12.  Horrible relations are sometimes 9 months, often 12 months and
 sometimes impossible.  Note that cities in war cannot be entered into
 negotiations with until the war ends (and your people get sent home.)
 Strangely, I have discovered a glitch that sometimes allows the computer to
 carry on with these negotiations and act as if the war isn’t taking place at
 all—I have witnessed this only in Scenario 1 with Cairo in that first war.

 A final consideration.  Especially in Scenario 1 we have a slot shortage, but
 even Scenario 4 in cities like Tokyo slots can become scarce (Tokyo is one of
 few cities that can make an interregional flight to every other region,
 starting in Scenario 3 in 1990.)  Whenever you are in cities like Tokyo,
 London, New York, and your other major hubs, it may be an idea to bid for
 lots of slots in those cities early on, even if you don’t need them right
 away.  Two reasons—first, to reserve them for you.  The $10-50 spent per turn
 per slot isn’t as bad as you think it is when you consider what you can do
 with them in two years.  This is especially important when playing against
 human players who might choose to grab all of your slots to stifle you.  The
 second reason is more common, as it is to trigger airport expansion projects.
 Once an airport has more than 50% of its slots taken for a complete turn, it
 will begin work on expansion (major cities only).  These can take from 4
 turns to 10 turns, and always the longer it takes the fewer slots that result
 in the end.  So it is wise sometimes to grab all of those slots early
 (especially if your people aren’t doing anything better) so as to trigger
 those projects earlier rather than later so they will be ready when you are.

________________
The Best Routes:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 International Routes -- that is, anything going from one geographic area to
   another.  Like New York to London, or Los Angeles to Tokyo.  There is
   always a great demand for these routes, PLUS the distance means it is
   economical to use large planes like the 747, which carries a lot of people,
   which means lots of money.  Also you may be able to charge whatever you
   want here if you get 100% capacities.

     Note:  You can only have one international route into each region, that
            is, if you do a Tokyo-Paris, you can't do a Tokyo-London, but you
            could do a Tokyo-New York.

 Long/Medium Distance Routes -- not quite international, these go from one
   extreme end of a geographic area to another.  Like New York to Miami, or
   London to Athens.  Use a medium sized jet here, but have more flights.  You
   can't charge as much, but the short distance means less expenses.  If you
   have 3 or 4 of these in every region you are in, you will do fine.

 Korath has more to add on this:

   International routes are a must.  In one game where the company was
   based in New York, with my above mentioned New York to London/Cairo to
   Tokyo route, I had an extra route into Sydney, and two (unprofitable)
   ones going into Mexico, and Tehran.  Along with maybe 6-9 medium
   distance routes in N.America (and 2 in Australia), and maybe around the
   year 2003/4 of the supersonic scenario, I was pulling in $178,000 in
   profits from around $300,000 in sales.

   In contrast I had another company based in London which had
   International routes into Cairo, another into New York, and then to
   Mexico.  My main routes were Europe in which I had maybe 6-9 medium
   distance routes.  With tinkering, I was pulling in 200,000+ passengers
   quarterly through Europe, though overall my profits were only one-third
   of the New York based "International" airline.  With about the same
   number of routes in North America, the routes pulled in maybe 100,000
   passengers.

   My advice: "Look almost immediately into building an international
   circling route (to the point of focusing soley on slot negotiations, and
   possibly business ventures).  From the start, gradually build supporting
   routes (one at a time) within your home region, but unless you have a
   competitor based in the same region, you won't need to worry about
   establishing a dominating presence (that comes later).

   "Based on the planes available in the different scenarios, in the very
   first scenario, you will not have as good a range.  In the first
   scenario, you will need to establish a 4 city route which goes from
   London to Vancover to Tokyo to New Delhi to London.  In the last
   scenario, you have longer ranged planes available, and thus only require
   a 3 city route, which connects (recomended) London to New York to Tokyo
   to London.

   "Later on, if you want to compete with someone in Oceania (as I have not
   found any reason not to, except for possible lower potential for profit
   and passengers), extend down into Sydney (in the earliest scenario you
   may need to wait for a 5000+ mile ranged plane which would be a DC8-30
   (5120 miles) in '59 or a B707-320 (5560 miles) in '61).  If you want to
   compete in S.America, Mexico city is probably the best (and likeliest
   choice)."

   Additional Strategy: "With disposible cash, anyone can walk into another
   companies backyard (aka home region) and take their business.  By using
   similar planes/flights/etc, but with around a 20%-30% lower ticket price
   than your competitior, you can easily grab the majority of flights after
   establishing 4-6 routes in about 4-6 quarters (results will vary
   depending on how established your competitor is).  I took down MetLink
   in N.America in about 6 quarters after establishing my first competing
   route, when they had a consistant 30,000+ quarterly passengers (and many
   of their routes had a ticket increase by 50%).  I had nothing to really
   lose, as I wasn't established there except for a hub, and everything to
   gain, which I did.  Unfortunately, in my focusing of North America,
   MetLink took back South America (which they had held until I established
   myself there), and UK Air took back Oceania (which like South America,
   they had held until I established myself there).  As I was based in
   London, I had another competitor in Europe that was based in Moscow
   (which had only Europe regional flights).  About this time they went on
   an advertising frenzy which significantly reduced my lead in Europe (to
   the extent that they were close to taking over Europe (which they
   might've done)).  It was all I could do to recover Oceania and South
   America, while Moscow played Spoiler in Europe.  My cash flow dried up,
   and I wasn't able to maintain it.  Looking back, I could've (and
   should've) gone into Africa which was not established by *anyone* to win
   the game (I did have Oceania South America and Europe after all, and it
   wouldn't have taken much especially when I believe I had a Cairo hub ;-)
   already.  As it was, I not only wanted to win, but I wanted one of my #1
   regions to be the home region of one of my competitors ;-)"

___________
Bad Routes:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 Short Hops -- these are really bad.  Avoid making any routes like this!  An
   example is the London to Paris route.  Sure it may SOUND good, but even if
   you get a profit from it, it won't be as much as you would get otherwise on
   a better route.  Although it will get you people, which can get you market
   share.  However, I wouldn't waste my planes on a short route, when there
   are so many nice Medium Routes to do.

______________________
Tinkering with Routes:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 If your route is at 100% capacity and is raking in the bucks, then you will
 want to tinker with it to make it even better at making money!
   - Swap to a larger plane
   - Add more planes
   - Buy new slots at both airports and increase the flights
   - Increase the ticket price by 10%

 If your route is not 100% and/or is losing money then you need to get it to
 be profitable.
   - Swap to a smaller plane
   - Decrease the amount of planes/flights
   - Advertise!
   - Cut prices by 10%

 Note:  A route that is Red is losing money!  Often times these Red Routes are
        temporary, as in times of war, or Oil Embargoes (which raise your
        costs).

 Korath has some input on tinkering:

   In the Tinkering with Routes Section, another suggestion if the route is
   unprofitable and you have done all you have to try to improve things,
   suspend the route.  It does you no good to continously lose money.
   Depending on the cost of the route startup, closing it down completly
   may not be worthwhile (you can always try to resume it later).

   As an example, I had a company which had a London to Cairo route that
   had at best a 6% load (even with a single 200 seater plane, 1 flight,
   and rates down to -50%).  My main competitor on the route (which
   happened to be another company I was managing) has 100% load and had a
   couple flights and even more than one plane.  Prices I believe were
   increased in the area of 20% or so.  This is even when Cairo got a boom
   in traffic.

   Another situation which may have affected this reduced load is that
   (with New York and Tokyo connected on one side, I had a New York to
   London to Tokyo route open as well as New York to Cairo to Tokyo route.
   Essentially the only difference was one passed through London, and the
   other passed through Cairo.  I'm thinking that the London-Cairo direct
   route failed because of that.

Finding Profitable Routes:
--------------------------
 After playing a while, you will get a good feel for what is profitable and
 what is not.  Always try new combinations (that appear decent)—you will never
 stop being surprised at what combinations like Rome—Minsk can do for you.
 Remember some key factors in determining a good route are the city stats
 (population, economy, tourism, relations), distance, competition and planes
 available.  The difficulty level and other factors are included as well, but
 those often cannot be controlled.  Notice that when you change difficulty
 levels, flights become more/less popular (as it gets harder to woo those
 passengers in Level 5 than Level 1). The main factors are:

   City Stats
   Distance
   Competition
   Planes Available
   Gas efficiency and maintenance
   Initial Cost
   Speed

 City stats.
   Obviously, higher stats and better relations will do a route justice.
   Below in the Cities section I have already talked a lot about the stats
   individually, so here I will talk about them together, working in tune with
   one another.

   Economy and tourism go hand in hand, one needing the other; a flight
   between two tourist cities or a flight between two cities with high
   economy is not as strong as a flight between a city with high economy and
   another with high tourism.  This is why routes such as New York—Honolulu
   flourish.  Population in this sense is important with the cities
   with high economy stats but not with the tourism city.  It never hurts (I
   don’t see any problem between London—Athens, and due to an obvious error in
   the game Athens has the biggest population in Europe), but it will increase
   the price of the flight.  Remember, starting costs for flights is based
   entirely on population, and nothing to do with economy.  For example,
   Oceania has the lowest overall population in the game, yet a strong
   economy. Flights there cost little and earn little; while the economy is
   great, there are so few people to fly!!  Tourism is very low as well (a bit
   surprisingly so) and therefore no one has incentive to fly.

   General rule of thumb here?  When you see low stats, like in Africa, Middle
   East and S America, realize early that those flights are not very
   profitable yet are necessary to win the game.  I do not recommend
   prioritizing Africa, South America, the Middle East or Oceana until after
   you have set up shop in the other three regions as these poorer regions
   simply don’t profit like North America, SE Asia and Europe.

 Distance.
   Distance determines two factors—what kinds of planes you can use and cost
   of the ticket.  It may seem like the plane factor is more of a concern, but
   it is in fact the ticket price that you are concerned about.  Flights
   between close cities are never recommended, unless you need passengers and
   are willing to spend a lot of money only to find you are not profitable.
   However, when cities are more distant, they tend to make more money.  The
   computer does not calculate number of passengers based on the actual ticket
   price, but on the percentage above or below average; therefore flights that
   are really expensive but at an average price will rake in big bucks since
   the people think they are getting “a good deal.” (Ex. Tokyo—New York 6750
   miles)

 Competition.
   What I understand the least in this game is how competition is calculated,
   how it works out that one airline is beating another and how the customers
   react to price changes.  Each difficulty level is different still; as
   mentioned before, it is difficult to woo customers from another airline in
   Level 5 if they have had a presence before you, despite marking down prices
   to -50%.  But there are many factors, not just price.  Price is important;
   people want lower prices.  However, the airline with more businesses
   present and advertising campaigns is more likely to sway more people.
   Also, the number of flights in a region can affect  passengers for
   interregional flights connected to it.  If you are a solid number 1 in both
   Oceania and SE Asia, and you have a Tokyo—Sydney route, despite being
   marked up you will carry more passengers than AirMex coming in with -30%
   flight.  Good relations don’t hurt.

 Planes available.
   Obviously, to make a flight you need a plane that can make the distance and
   carry enough passengers to make it worth your while.  But when we talk
   about profitable routes, we must take the statistics of the aircraft into
   consideration—namely, gas efficiency, maintenance, initial cost and speed.
   It hardly needs to be mentioned that planes with more seats will carry more
   passengers, allowing potential to earn more (or spend more on gas and
   maintenance).

 Gas efficiency and maintenance.
   Remember, higher numbers are better as they represent efficiency.
   Propeller planes, smaller jets and modern aircraft usually have good stats.
   Early jet planes, large planes and most planes from Tupolev and Ilyushin
   usually have lower stats and therefore are costly.  In selecting a plane
   for a route, it is often a good idea to take this into consideration—if you
   have to lower the price significantly due to competition, it is a good idea
   to make sure you have a very efficient aircraft chosen so that the flight
   still profits.  When the computer is using a B747 between Cairo and Tunis
   with a -50% price, it is impossible to beat their prices—how do you compete
   with this?  You create the same flight but with higher efficiency.  Open a
   flight with a B737 instead with a -50% price tag.  You will probably lose
   money as well, but the computer will lose much more money and will not
   change planes—they will suspend the route in about two turns, and with the
   flight suspended, you will get all of the passengers.  Easy!  Remember,
   when competing with the computer, you must often create a more efficient
   route to succeed, rather than wasting all of your time with costly business
   ventures.

 Initial cost.
   It goes without saying that the initial cost of the aircraft must be
   justified by the amount of profit you are pulling in.  To create a flight
   between Sydney and São Paulo is cool, but the aircraft cost $110,000 apiece
   (this is Scenario 4 obviously) and your flight will barely be half full.
   Not to mention the initial cost to create the route—is all of this
   justified by this sad profit of $10,000/turn?  No.  It would take half of
   the game before you broke even, and I don’t know about you but I am not
   wasting one of my precious 40 flights on a flight between Oceania and South
   America.

 Speed.
   Speed?  There is no such statistic on the screen!  This is true, but it
   exists nonetheless.  Very few planes have a speed outside of the standard.
   Some prop planes are slower than jets (DC6, for example) and supersonic
   planes are faster (Concorde, all those planes in Scenario 4 starting about
   2006-2007).  Let us use an example.  A flight from New York to Chicago, any
   scenario.  Assign any plane and you will note that it can handle 5 flights.
   Well, assign a DC6 (Scenario 1) and it can only handle 3; this is because
   it is really slow.  Assign a Concorde and it can handle a whopping 7.
   Neat huh?  Well, speed is not a consideration unless you are in Scenario 1
   or 4 or have the money to buy a Concorde in Scenario 2.  But speed is the
   reason I never use DC6s; I always use the L1049 in Scenario 1 despite its
   higher price because it is all-around better, and worth the initial cost.
   I personally have not dealt much with the other propeller planes in
   Scenario 1, but I imagine that there are others like the DC6, slow and not
   worth it.  Also, speed is why you might choose to buy those planes in
   Scenario 4, and is why they are so expensive.  Otherwise they are a rip-
   off.

Interregional flights
---------------------

 Interregional flights are usually where you make the best money, but not
 always.  It is important to use the essentials above and logic; for example,
 a flight from New York to Tokyo is a guaranteed winner, but Cairo to Baghdad
 is less so.  The former route is between two heavily populated cities with
 incredible stats and very good relations, not to mention it is an incredible
 distance (6750 miles).  The latter is between two cities of lower population,
 bad stats and less than perfect relations, and is less than 1000 miles away.

 Interregional flights are almost always very profitable when departing from a
 “solid” city: London, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York, LA, Chicago, Sydney.
 Flights between the above cities are incredible, and you should make as many
 as you can so as to make more money.  Other strong cities for profitable
 interregional flights include Seoul, Tehran, Cairo, Rome, Mexico City,
 Vancouver.  Pretty much, other cities are weak and such flights should be
 made only after careful consideration and out of necessity.

 Remember that interregional flights are strengthened when your regional
 flights of the two regions are strengthened.  New York—London is twice as
 strong when you are #1 in North America and Europe.  It goes without saying,
 but interregional flights from your home base are advantaged because of this.
 I do not recommend making interregional flights to/from regions where you
 have no presence (obviously you have no presence in one region, but to lack
 presence in the other is bad as well).  Also, if you are having trouble in a
 certain region (this always happens to me in the Middle East), I advise
 setting up “extraneous” interregional flights there to aid your regional
 passenger loads.  I would avoid this if you are on the 40 flight limit mark,
 but otherwise it is a sure way to beat the competition.

Regional flights
----------------
 Aside from the general advice for creating routes, you should take other
 considerations in planning and making regional routes.  Do realize that not
 all regions are equal, and that while some flights profit immensely, others
 are doomed to lose money.  Interregional flights are largely necessary; you
 must have a hub in every region to win, regardless of level.  Therefore, the
 purpose of interregional flights is to 1) make money and 2) complete the
 game.  Regional flights’ purpose is to 1) make money and 2) carry more
 passengers than other airlines in a given region.  The latter is different
 because the passenger load is significant, whereas it is not significant with
 the interregional flights.  Note that the first and foremost important step
 is to generate income (see below).

 In the beginning of the game, passenger totals take a backseat to
 profitability.  So in the beginning, we are creating flights based on how
 much money they make, not taking into consideration if we are winning the
 game yet.  It is very possible that you will be #2 in any and all regions
 (including your own) because you are not worried about winning, but building
 a profitable airline that can later dominate the skies.  Focus on profit
 first, passengers last.  In order to make more money, read the section above
 on profitability.  In order to get more passengers, read the section above on
 businesses, advertising and competition (under building profitable routes).

 Strong destinations by region (in no particular order):
   North America: Honolulu, San Francisco, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago (however
                  note that any flight in North America has good potential of
                  being highly profitable)
   South America: Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, São Paulo
   Europe: London, Athens, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Kiev, Vienna
   Africa: Algiers, Tunis, Lagos, Cairo (though note that Africa rarely
           profits much)
   Middle East: Bombay, Tehran, New Delhi, Karachi, Tashkent (though note that
                the Middle East rarely profits much)
   Southeast Asia: Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Hong Kong, Osaka, Sapporo, Guam,
                   Saipan
   Oceania: Sydney, Melbourne

How to Calculate Passenger Totals (from AlbertC79)
-------------------------------------------------

 Have you always wondered how the game calculates passenger totals per route?
 Well I finally figured out the breakdown!  Presuming the route has a 100%
 passenger load, the total number of passengers can be figured out with the
 following equation:

   No. of seats * No. of flights per week * 12 weeks = Passenger total

 The figure "12 weeks" was taken from 12 weeks per quarter
 (4 weeks per month * 3 months per quarter).

 Here's a good example using the Tokyo-New York route while playing
 Scenario 4 (2000-2020).  If you are using 3 747-400s (550 seats per plane)
 flying 5 flights a week, and you have a 100% passenger load, this would be
 the breakdown:

   550 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks  = 33,000 passengers per quarter

 Sometimes switching to a smaller plane but adding more planes and more
 flights can help boost passenger loads significantly!  Look at the following
 example.  Say you decide to switch over to the smaller MD-12 (400 seats per
 plane)  for this route, but you increase the number of flights per week to
 14.  This would be the new breakdown:

   400 seats * 14 flights per week * 12 weeks = 67,200 passengers per quarter

 Amazing huh?  You've more than doubled your passenger loads using a smaller,
 cheaper, more economical plane!

 Now let's say you are running low on homebase slots (because those damn
 airports can only add so many new slots so often!) and you want to shift
 slots over from this route, but you don't want to drop your passenger loads,
 then a good suggestion for the above route is to switch over to a much bigger
 plane like the B2000-HJ (with a whopping 1000 seats per plane!) and cutting
 the number of flights a week from 14 to 7.  This would be the new breakdown:

   1000 seats * 7 flights per week * 12 weeks = 84,000 passengers per quarter

 Really sweet huh?  You've increased your passenger loads yet again, but using
 less flights!  This is a great way to determine what kind of plane to use on
 a certain route, and how many flights per week to set.

 I know what you're probably thinking now.  "But not all flights have a 100%
 passenger load, how do you come up with the odd-numbered figures like the
 game does?"  Well I figured that one out too!  Just do the same equation but
 in reverse!  Here's an example, let's use a different route this time.  We'll
 use Mexico City-Rio de Janeiro while playing Scenario 3 (1985-2005) for this
 example.  Say you initially open the route using 3 A300-600s (370 seats per
 plane) flying 5 flights a week.  Presuming a 100% passenger load, this is the
 breakdown:

   370 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 22,200 passengers per quarter

 The flight is set and you let the quarter run through, but you notice that
 the Mex-Rio route only had 14,768 passengers for that quarter.  Note: Anytime
 you have a passenger figure for a route that does NOT end with a 0, that
 means that route is NOT at 100% capacity.  Normally you would just check the
 flight to see the passenger capacity, but I bet I could tell you what it is
 without looking at the game.  Here is how you calculate a reverse breakdown
 to determine passenger loads per plane:

   No. of passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / No. of flights per weeks
   / No. of seats = % passenger capacity

 Note the game doesn't display decimal percentages (like 52.5%) so the figures
 shown would be rounded up to the nearest whole percentage.  Using the
 equation, plug in the figures from the above example:

   14,768 passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / 5 flights per week / 370 seats
   = 67% capacity

 With a 67% capacity, you might want to consider either downgrading to a
 smaller plane like the A310, or decreasing the number of flights.  But which
 is the more feasible option?  Using the first equation is a great way to find
 out.  This would be the breakdown if you decide to decrease from 5 flights
 per week to 3 flights per week with the same plane:

   370 seats * 3 flights per week * 12 weeks = 13,320 passengers per quarter

 This is not a good solution as you will end up losing more passengers this
 way.  Let's try keeping the 5 flights per week but switching to a smaller
 plane like the A310 (280 seats).  Here's the breakdown:

   280 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 16,800 passengers

 This will bring your passenger load up from 67% to 88% which is a more decent
 passenger load, which still leaves some room for increase in case something
 like a tourism boom or the Olympics should take place.

 Note: Switching to a smaller more economical plane on a particular route
       actually may yield further benefits.  Using the smaller more economical
       plane will decrease the costs associated with fuel and maintenance,
       which can help cut costs and further increase profits!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Cities
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 So what effect do population, economy and tourism have on a route?  On a hub
 city?  Profound effects, actually, as those are the statistics that largely
 govern the calculations that determine how many passengers you carry.  Each
 number governs a different idea/concept and has different impacts on
 different routes.

 Population.
 The population governs how much a route costs initially to set up, taking
 into equal consideration both the hub and the destination.  That is why
 flights to/from Tokyo are outlandish while London is much cheaper, yet Mexico
 City, a third-world country, takes the cake.  Obviously, population also
 governs the number of people available to travel at all.  Regions that are
 more populous will have higher passenger totals than those that are less
 populous (compare SE Asia to Europe, especially in the later scenarios).
 Population tends to increase during the course of a scenario, though many
 cities do not increase in population.  Also be aware that the game is fairly
 old, and the statistics for the 1990s onward are just a guess.  We all know
 that Mexico City and São Paulo are more populated than Tokyo in the 2000s,
 but they didn’t know it would be like that.

 Economy.
 The economy statistic (higher is better) governs several things.  First and
 foremost, the higher the number, the higher percentage of citizens from that
 particular city will be able to fly to various places in the world.  Densely
 populated cities, like São Paulo, with a low economy number do not attract
 more passengers and are not always good routes.  However, cities with high
 populations and high economies are idea locations for routes, especially
 hubs.  The economy statistic is also responsible for the costs of business
 ventures and regional hubs in a city.  Notice that when you wish to buy a
 business or establish a hub that is experiencing a boom in tourism, the
 prices are outlandish.  (It is not the tourism number that governs this, but
 remember that when there is a tourism boom, both economy and tourism ratings
 go up to 100.)  Wait until the boom is over to expand your empire.

 Tourism.
 The tourism statistic (higher is better) governs several things as well.
 First and foremost, the higher the number, the more people will want to
 travel to the city.  Why is Honolulu a good flight with a sorry economy and
 population factor?  Because of its huge tourism factor!!  Tourism effects all
 flights, regional and interregional.  Purchasing tourism-related businesses
 will increase a city’s tourism rating as well, but I believe that is merely
 for you and not other players.  (I have not confirmed this.)

 Relations.
 Relations between countries largely govern how easy or difficult it is for
 you to work with other countries bidding for slots, buying airplanes, and
 setting up hubs.  It also has an influence on flights, however; a flight
 between New York and Moscow in Scenarios 1 and 2 is doomed to failure,
 because the two countries are on bad terms, regardless if you are Cairo, who
 is on decent terms with both.  That is why the computer usually makes routes
 between only democratic or only communist countries (like Moscow—Beijing or
 London—Tokyo).  Just because your airline’s relations with the countries are
 good does not mean that your home country’s relations are as well.  You can
 change relations by paying the “beggars” when they ask for money, but this is
 the only way and I do not recommend it unless you are well-established in the
 game and you are at a point where money isn’t an issue.  Either way, if you
 as Russia give the US money in Scenario 1, even though you can now buy planes
 and get slots in 6 months, your flight may not be successful from New York—
 Moscow like a flight between communist brothers would be.

 Putting it all together.
 So how do we take these stats and make killer routes?  First determine if the
 relations are decent.  Normally they are.  Hubs with a good economy rating
 will flourish with flights to cities with high tourism.  For example, Tokyo—
 Guam, Saipan and Cebu are usually banking like crazy despite the short
 distance.  And since the population in those cities is .1 million, the
 initial cost of the flight is significantly lower.  This is a crucial
 consideration in the beginning of the game.  Two cities with merely high
 economies and low or moderate tourism will be decent, but those Aussies don’t
 want to go to New Zealand, they want to go to a tropical resort in Papeete!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Other Ways to Get Money
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
__________________
Business Ventures:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 The far right button on the top row is the Business Venture button.  You can
 buy a business anywhere you want.  (you don't need to have flown there)  The
 idea is mostly to complement your airline, so you want to buy Hotels, or
 Bus services.  It requires a staff member to buy the Business so make sure
 you have one before you attempt to buy, and it also takes time.  Not all
 businesses are instantly profitable.  To check their profitability, call a
 staff meeting.

   Note:  The best businesses for you to buy are those which are deep in your
          territory, and which have several routes connecting to them, or one
          major route.  You can buy a business anywhere on the map, however.

______________________________
Business Ventures and Tourism: (from AlbertC79)
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 On the section of Business Ventures, I noticed that whenever you buy certain
 leisure businesses (Amusement Parks, Golf Courses, Ski Resorts, and Pleasure
 Boats) and certain cultural businesses (Museums, Arts Pavilions, and Concert
 Halls), that particular city's tourist rating actually goes up!  The level it
 goes up depends on the particular business you purchase and the number of
 said businesses that you purchase.  I believe the more expensive the business
 is, the more it will affect the city's tourist rating.  With the city's
 increased tourist rating, I noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in passenger
 traffic on all my flights to and from that city!  Here's an example I
 noticed:

 In Scenario 4 (2000-2020), I played a game using Tokyo as my homebase.
 Tokyo's initial tourist rating was 50 when I began the game.  As the game
 progressed, I purchased the Museum in Tokyo (relatively cheap), and within
 the next quarter, Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to 52!  Later I then
 purchased the Amusement Park (VERY expensive) and by the next quarter,
 Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to a whopping 72!  I also noticed an
 increase in passenger traffic on my routes!

 I have ascertained that cultural and leisure businesses increase a city's
 tourist rating by a fixed amount.  Here are the results:

   Leisure Businesses
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Amusement Park - increase tourist rating by 20
   Golf Course - increase tourist rating by 12 or 15(?)
   Ski Resort - increase tourist rating by 10 or 12(?)
   Pleasure Boat - tourist increase rating by 5

   Cultural Businesses
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Concert hall - increase tourist rating by 4
   Museum - increase tourist rating by 2
   Arts Pavilion - increase tourist rating by 2

 I also noticed that the city's economic rating did not change.  In the
 example above, Tokyo's economic rating never changed above or below 76 as a
 result of purchasing those businesses.  I also noticed that purchasing other
 businesses such as Hotels and Travel Services, and any others not mentioned
 above will NOT affect your tourist rating.  Also your city's tourist rating
 will NOT change further if you have a successful advertising campaign for it,
 however passenger traffic to that city will change.

 It is important to note that even though this benefit will work for any city
 it is implemented on, not all cities will have the appropriate business
 ventures to allow for it, but if they do, you should definitely take
 advantage!

Business ventures (more)
------------------------
 These things crack me up.  They are deceiving, and on the whole I recommend
 you ignore them.  The computer is programmed to buy the Grand Hotel/City
 Hotel in all of its hubs if it can, and I don’t know why.  Graphing the
 results after several years, it is rare to profit significantly and when I
 mean “significantly” that means about $5000/year.  There are better things to
 spend your money on—Arts Pavilions are even better than Hotels as they at
 least boost your flights a bit.

 Travel agencies will increase your passenger loads for the region, but cannot
 be promoted.  The three categories of what is left of business ventures are
 sports/leisure, arts/culture and travel.  I find that the travel ones have a
 more profound effect in hub cities and the others do better in your other
 cities.  I like to buy Shuttle Services in my opponents’ hub cities in a
 region and then promote the network—that is a good way to eliminate the
 opposition.  (A section for competition follows this one a ways down, for
 more details.)  However, the only time I buy any business ventures is when I
 am competing, as otherwise I find they are a waste of time and will not
 profit by themselves.  Business ventures should never be bought with the idea
 of bringing in cold, hard cash.  Instead they should be used for promotions,
 increasing passenger totals and to compete with your opponents.  Business
 ventures always require 3 months to purchase, even in Red China.  Remember
 their costs are dependant on the city’s economic factor and on population.

____________
Advertising:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 Advertising is directly related to Business Ventures and so is listed down
 here.  You can only advertise when you actually have a Business, because you
 are advertising the Business, not your airline.  However, your airline reaps
 the rewards of the Advertising.  Confused?  Anyway, there are 3 categories of
 Ads, and you can only do the ones that correspond to the Businesses you have.
 Also if you increase the amount spent on advertising, it increases the
 likelihood that something will happen!

Promotions:
-----------
 Ad campaigns are easily overlooked in the game as futile but are actually a
 very powerful tool for increasing passenger loads and competing.  They cannot
 be done on a whim, as you need at least one promotable business venture and
 if the promotion is successful, your employee dude will be busy for a full
 year running it (not the best plan if all you are promoting is an art stand
 in Manila.)  Promotions will increase passenger loads in all of the regional
 flights within a region, not just the cities directly affected; however,
 those cities with the businesses will see a more profound impact.  The more
 ventures you have of the same type in a region, the more profound the effect
 is.  I highly recommend that if you decide to use businesses and advertising
 in a region that you stick to one type of business (avoiding sports/leisure
 if you have any money troubles whatsoever) and go with that; you don’t want
 to send three different guys to the same region just to run campaigns, then
 you aren’t able to do anything for a year.

 Especially in the easier levels, ad campaigns are strong tools for wooing
 customers despite their “customer loyalty” to the opposing airline.  Also in
 Level 5 when the computer insists upon using B747s from Tehran to Bombay with
 a price tag of -50%, the only way to beat that is with a more profitable
 route (details later) and with business promotion.  When venturing into the
 south of the equator regions (Africa, S America, Middle East and Oceana) I
 recommend you take a look at all of the cities you will include in your
 network and see what types of ventures are represented in every city, and
 base your decision on ventures on this.  For example, there are no golf
 courses, ski resorts or theme parks in Africa, so a sports/leisure campaign
 is limited to the pleasure boats on the northern coast (Cairo doesn’t even
 have one).  Perhaps this isn’t the best type of campaign to run in Africa,
 where you should instead focus on travel ventures (even Addis Ababa has a
 Shuttle Service.)

 Prices of promotion is based upon the price of the venture, which is based on
 economy ratings.  Always pay the most unless you want failed campaign after
 failed campaign.  Never lower the service funding on your maintenance
 toolbar.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Putting it all together
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 First is choosing a winning starting location.  It is interesting and fun to
 play as Manila, Perth or Tunis—however, you are going to have a tough time
 winning even at Level 1.  If you wish to play on Level 5 or against humans,
 I recommend starting on at least even ground.  For example, when you choose
 Level 5 the computer will usually choose New York, Tokyo, London, Sydney and
 the like.  To compete, you need to choose a city that is comparable (remember
 your other 6 hubs can be placed anywhere that you can fly to).  This is
 especially important if the computer gives you competition in your home
 region; you don’t want to go up against Sunrise if you are Chinair.  If you
 play against humans, and you wish to choose Amsterdam, Atlanta and Havana,
 make sure everybody starts on the same ground as it would be unfair to go up
 against London if you were Amsterdam.  Unless you really want a challenge.

 As stated above, though it is worth mentioning again, profit is first and
 foremost in this game, and passenger loads are a distant 2nd in priority.
 Create a lot of interregional flights right off the bat and create flights to
 the three most profitable regions—North America, Southeast Asia and Europe—in
 order to set up hubs there and make profitable regional flights.  Do not
 waste time on your home region if it is not one of the above regions; set up
 a couple of decent flights and get on with it.  If you lose #1 position
 there, do not fight, especially if it is also the computer’s home region, as
 the computer will compete and compete until it has victory in its home
 region, creating flights to each and every city until it wins.  Also, avoid
 becoming #1 in other airlines’ regions until they have run out of money,
 because they will spend it all regaining #1 in that region.  Africa’s
 profitability is already very low and flights there can get ugly; don’t make
 things worse by fighting with AirNile earlier than you have to.  If you are
 going to compete, do so when you have a steady income each turn and the
 computer is largely broke.

 So once you are profitable, you must compete for passenger loads.  Cut
 prices, add flights/upgrade to larger planes, buy businesses and run ad
 campaigns to woo the passengers to take those #1 positions.  When you are low
 on slots, upgrade to larger planes and lower prices further to get close to
 100% capacity (if you are at 100% you need to keep upgrading; when trying to
 win a region, and money doesn’t matter, you don’t want to raise prices).
 When you are competing in a region, remember that your work is two-fold; your
 goal is both to increase your passenger totals and decrease your opponent’s.
 Even if you built your hub in Seoul, your flight to Guam at -50% is going to
 put pressure on the computer’s flight from Hong Kong to Guam.  I find that
 targeting the computer’s routes is the best way to gain a strong #1 in a
 region.  I also recommend purchasing business ventures of the same type (pick
 your poison) in 1) your hub, 2) the computer’s hub and 3) the major cities
 that you share in common.  Advertise, lower prices to -50% and enjoy your
 retirement as you easily win the game.  This strategy works in all 5 levels
 and in all 4 scenarios.

 Review of general strategy:
   1) Pick a good starting point and appropriate difficulty level.
   2) Create profitable routes, interregional and regional.  Make lots of $$.
   3) Capture #1 position in each region, beginning with regions where the
      computer has not placed its starting location.
   4)Do not forget the principles in this guide.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Other Strategies
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Hall sent me this neato strategy:

 "If you base your carrier in North America, there’s no point whatsoever into
 paying money to the various foreign representatives who show up hat-in-hand.
 However, if you ever feel like a challenge and use Moscow or Berlin as your
 headquarters there’s indeed a benefit I’ve spotted.  IF (and this is a big
 if) the folks asking for money are from the United States and you’re Moscow
 or Berlin (and as the flag shows, that’s East Germany’s Berlin) based, after
 you see the "relations with the United States have improved" dialog you can
 buy US-built planes.  Even BEFORE Perestroika.  I stumbled upon this trying
 to keep my Moscow-based carrier Jetflot alive in a scenario II game. Since I
 was actually trying to bankrupt it (so I could start again with some fresh
 cash) I had no qualms about sending some money to help clean-up the pollution
 around Dallas airport.  But when I went to check out airplane sales instead
 of the cursor starting on Tupolev, it was on Douglas. Indeed, I could buy
 anything offered, so I stocked up on Boeing 727-200s in place of
 economical(ish) but tiny Tupolev TU132s and fuel guzzling TU154s. And that
 was only the start.

 "I set up another game with Berlin (also restricted as a Warsaw-pact state in
 the earlier scenarios) and eventually had the same thing happen, so there are
 benefits to paying these beggars.  A sideline is that those 12 month
 negotiation periods for slots in New York shortened to six, and when I set up
 a hub there it was only a three-month wait.  A real improvement."


===============================================================================
Final Words...
===============================================================================

There is a small "Bonus Game" in Aerobiz Supersonic, and it is a "Flag" game.
Find the icon that looks like the SNES controller, and press A then SELECT to
get into the game.  It will show you a flag, then give you 4 options as to
which country it belongs to.  Simple.
 -- from GameSages -- http://sages.ign.com/codes/12/8227.html


This FAQ was writen entirely using the GWD Text Editor:  (shareware)
 http://www.gwdsoft.com/

ASCII Art created using SigZag by James Dill:   (freeware!)
 http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/marina/4942/sigzag.htm

_________________________
Shameless Self Promotion:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 I am Dan Simpson ([email protected]) and have also written FAQs for:

   NES:      Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom
             Final Fantasy -- Magic FAQ
             The Legend of Zelda
   SNES:     Aerobiz
             Aerobiz Supersonic
             Utopia: Creation of a Nation
   Genesis:  StarFlight
   PSX:      Thousand Arms -- Walkthrough
                           -- Forging/Dating FAQ
   PS2:      Madden NFL 2001
   XBOX:     Star Wars: KotOR II: The Sith Lords -- FAQ/Walkthrough
                                                 -- Influence Guide
   PC:       AD&D Rules FAQ, 2nd and 3rd Editions
             Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast -- FAQ/Walkthrough
                                                         NPC List
                                                         Creature List
             Baldur's Gate II & Throne of Bhaal -- FAQ/Walkthrough
                                                -- Items List
                                                -- Class FAQ
                                                -- Creature List
             Civilization III (incomplete)
             Colonization -- the Single Colony Strategy Guide
                          -- the Cheat Guide
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             Dungeon Hack
             Icewind Dale & Heart of Winter -- FAQ/Walkthrough
                                               Items List
                                               Kresselack's Tomb Map (JPG)
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                                               Shattered Hand Map (JPG)
             Icewind Dale II                -- Items List
             Master of Magic (revision)
             Messiah
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             Planescape: Torment  -- FAQ/Walkthrough
                                     Items Listing
             Rollercoaster Tycoon
             Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
             The Sims
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             Ultima Underworld -- Keyboard Commands
             Ultima Underworld II -- Keyboard Commands
                                  -- Spell List
 All of my FAQs can be found at:
   http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/2203.html
   ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯


________________
Version History:
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
Original Version (6-5-99, 15k)
STILL TO DO: Finish listing all the planes!
Changes in 1.1  (7-30-99, 17k)
 Added the Other Strategies section complete with 1 strategy!
 Some Small Changes and Addendums
Changes in 1.2 (10-1-99, 21k)
 Small format Changes
 Small Changes
Changes in Version 1.3 (2-29-00, 24k)
 Pretty much the same as 1.2, Small Changes and Small Format Changes
Changes in Version 1.31 (4-26-00, 25k)
 Updated the format some
 Small Changes

 Version 2.0  April 18, 2001  32k

   Reformatted and updated a little.  Then added lots of good information from
   Korath.

 Version 2.1  January 17, 2005  32k

   Changed my email address, and updated the format.

 Version 2.2  January 22, 2005  38k

   Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on the cost of planes,
   and the effect of Business Ventures.

 Version 2.3  January 23, 2005  44k

   Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on Passenger Totals
   in the Route section.

 Version 3.0  April 17, 2009  83k

   Eric Little sent in a huge amount of content, which I added where
   appropriate. Per his request, I did not tag each contribution, but a
   summary of what he sent in can be found above. Added the scenario 4
   planes from Marsk Ong.




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This Document is Copyright 1999-2009 by Dan Simpson
Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei

I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the
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