Terminals

Terminals allow extra gates in areas where there may be no gates left. In order to build a terminal, you must have a base established at the airport. A terminal has a minimum of 5 gates, and the cost of building a gate is significantly more than normal renting of gates. Terminal gates only cost 75% to maintain (their rent is therefore 25% less than regular rental fees), so if one builds a terminal early enough in the round, the construction costs may be recovered through the money saved in reduced gate rental fees.

Once you have built a terminal, all flights from that airport will move into the terminal. If there are more flights than new terminal gates at the airport, the remaining flights will remain in your rented gates.

For example, if you have 5 rented gates and 50 flights out of your focus city, and you then build a terminal with 5 gates, then all 50 flights will move into your terminal--leaving you with 5 (rented) gates available. You can create more routes to utilize those rented gates or return a portion (or all) of them. If you want to keep all 5 rented gates, you will need to use 41 slots before the following game month to prevent them from being automatically returned.

Building Terminals

Terminals can be purchased by clicking on the Build Terminal link under the Operations menu. The focus cities where you haven't built a terminal can be found under the Build a Terminal drop-down menu. In addition, a price list of how much it will cost to build a terminal is listed.

Once you have selected a focus city to build a terminal at, you will be directed to the Build a Terminal page.

You can adjust the number of terminal gates you want to build on the Gates to Build line; however, remember that a minimum of 5 must be built initially. If you adjust the number of gates to be built, you can click on Submit to see how much it will cost. Once satisfied with your selections, click on Build Terminal

If you have sufficient funds, you will receive the following message:

Extending Terminals

If you wish to add additional terminal gates, go back to the Build Terminal page. The select the airport's terminal you wish to extend by selecting it under the Extend a Terminal drop-down menu.

Enter the number of gates you wish to build on the Gates to Build line, then click on Submit to see how much it will cost (under the "Projected Total Cost" column). You do not receive any quantity discounts.

When you are satisfied with your choices, click on Build Terminal. If you have sufficient funds, you will receive this message:

If you build 10 gates at once, one rented (not built gates) gate will automatically be returned. If you build 10 gates, remember you can only use 9 of them.