Aircraft Data

Although airline data is an essential topic, it is pretty straight forward. In AM, you have to consider the following data when choosing an airplane:

Aircraft name

This is the type of aircraft you use. It doesn't factor much into the business aspect but some players do prefer a certain manufacturer or a certain type of plane, regardless of their performance in-game.

Seats

The more seats a plane has, the more ticket you could sell. The more seats you have available for sell, the less you could sell them for (ticket price). Does more seats translates into more profit? Most of the cases, it does. However, there are always exceptions. Another problem is that larger planes typically cost more, have longer turn time, and higher fuel costs.

Cargo

This data is currently not taken into account in AM

Speed

A quicker plane can fly more flights, but also tends to use more fuel. More flights give you more opportunity for revenue, which may not be sufficient to offset the increased fuel costs.

Range

Range is the distance an aircraft can fly without needing to be refueled. As there are no fuel stops in AM, aircraft are limited to flying routes that are within their range. Afterall, you can't fly a route of 3001 nm with a plane that can only fly 3000 nm. Note that when researching routes, distances are displayed to the nearest 1nm while aircraft range is exact. A city pair of 3000nm may actually be 3000.1nm, meaning an aircraft with a range of 3000(.0)nm cannot fly the route.

Withdrawn

This is the year that the type of aircraft is withdrawn from production. The manufacturer stops taking order after 24 Dec of the withdrawing year. If you would like that plane, please order in advance.

Crew

The pilots needed to fly the plane. The cabin crew is not shown in the information because it is calculated base on the guideline by FAA.

Turn time

The time needed to turn an aircraft is the minimum time needed between the aircraft arriving at a gate and the aircraft departing the gate. Specifically, it is the time needed to unload, clean up, and then load the aircraft again. The turn time data is in hours and is deducted from the time available for use when routes are assigned.

Block Time

That is the time, in hours, that a specific aircraft model will take to fly that route round-trip (i.e., frequency = 1.0). If you see, for instance, 4.80, that means 4 hours and 80% of hour meaning 48 minutes.

Each plane can fly 24 hours a day. How many hours each of your planes has "free" is shown under the column "Hours" in the "View aircraft" screen. Just be aware that the number shown there is rounded up or down to the nearest whole hour. So, a plane with 0.6 hours would show as 1 hour free. This can be misleading. Assume half an hour less than what is shown and you'll be safe.

So, say you have an aircraft showing 4 hours free. If you research a route and, for that plane type, it shows a block time of up to 3.5 hours, you could rent the needed gates and set up the route.

see more on Create Route page

Price

Price is the amount that is deducted from your account when you purchase an aircraft. When choosing an aircraft, compare the price to the speed, range, and seats to be sure you are getting the most for your money. Note also that the "price" will not always correspond to the "book value" of the aircraft, as they depreciate with age.

Engines

The engines on an aircraft affect the speed, range, price and fuel cost of a plane. However, for the purposes of the game, the engine type is basically irrelevant. It is much more useful to directly compare the speed, range, and price of aircraft when making purchasing decisions.

Fuel usage

You need to pay for the use of fuel. The smaller, slower planes usually use less fuel, but they also generate less revenue. However, there are exceptions, and some aircraft have less desireable fuel usage than others, so be sure to compare aircraft before purchasing.