Airline Operations

Use shares to expand an airline's network, fly, and grow its value.

Operating rounds

The Operation Phase has up to seven rounds. The First Player takes the first action, then players act clockwise. Each action spends one share of the chosen airline from your player board. A share may be used only once that turn. If you have no eligible share left, you pass for the rest of this Operation Phase. Resolve an action for its active airline, then continue until all players have passed or cannot act.

Routes and income

Gates are airline terminals. An airline may have only one Gate in a city. When adding a Gate, use the leftmost open position; the first airline in a city earns the printed city value plus its bonus, the last pays a competition penalty, and middle positions use the base value. Recalculate income whenever a Gate moves, a city is upgraded, or occupancy changes.

Expand places one or two Gates, limited by the airline’s Technology level and eligible regions. At White it places one in the USA; at Yellow, Green, Brown, or Gray it may place up to two in the regions that level opens.

Relocate moves one or two Gates. The airline’s income after the move must be at least what it was before the action. When a Gate leaves, remaining Gates shift left and their income may change.

Open combines upgrading a city with placing a Gate where that airline has none. Follow the rules for both actions, and the airline may not end with lower income than before.

Upgrading cities

Upgrade a city where the active airline already has a Gate, moving its tile to a higher color allowed by the airline’s technology. The basic action may upgrade one or two cities. You may pay to upgrade up to two additional cities: Yellow costs $10, Green $20, Brown $30, and Gray $40 per city. A city can skip colors, but never downgrade. All airlines already in a city benefit from its new base value.

Technology and destinations

Research moves the active airline one space forward on the Technology Track and may be taken once per airline per turn. Reaching a new color also advances its share marker one space. White permits USA cities; Yellow adds Canada; Green adds South America; Brown adds Europe and the Pacific; Gray adds Global cities where included. The number of players determines which regions are present. Technology never moves backward.

Hubs

Hub places one available Hub in a city where the active airline already has a Gate and an open Hub space. A Hub adds the city’s base value without its normal first/last position bonus or penalty. Hubs become available to an airline when its income reaches $26, $76, and $100. Cities in the USA and Canada can each hold only one Hub; other regions do not allow them. A Hub and its qualifying Gate cannot be removed unless the airline goes bankrupt.

Flying and standing

Fly pays each share a dividend based on the airline’s income level. The CEO is the player with more shares in that airline than any other single player. The CEO chooses one of the printed options: full dividends; half dividends rounded up plus one technology step; half dividends plus three Gates added to supply; no dividends plus six Gates added to supply; or no dividends plus three Gates and one technology step. If there is no CEO, follow the rulebook’s ordered fallback choices. An airline can fly only once per Operation Phase.

Stand takes no operating action and lowers the active airline’s share price by one space.

You may stand only when there is no legal alternative action for that airline that avoids spending your personal cash. Other players can point out a legal alternative; if one is shown, you must take a legal action instead.

End-of-turn penalties

At cleanup, in turn order, each player may buy one extra action for an airline where they are CEO, paying that airline’s current action cost from personal cash. An airline that has not flown loses one market space. It also loses one space per Gate in a city more than one technology level below the airline’s current level. Players may then assign contracts, the turn advances, used shares return to player boards, and the First Player marker passes left. An airline that ends the turn at the marked $1 bankruptcy space is removed. For stock-purchase details, see Stock and Turn Order.