AIRLINE MANAGER 4

 AIRLINE MANAGER 4

Developer: Xombat Development - Airline manager games, Trophy Games

Platform: Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows

Genre: Free to Play, Simulation

Topic Discussion : 
1. Planes
2. Routes
3. Maintenance
4. Staff
5. Marketing
6. Fuel and CO2
7. The Stock Market
8. Training
9. Bonus Points
10. More Features

1. PLANES

This is the most important thing in the game. No planes = no profit. For the profit-oriented

players, it can be quite confusing to pick the correct planes as there are more than 400

planes in AM4. Here are some factors you should consider when buying planes:

Basics (PAX):

● 1 Business Class seat (J-Class) takes the space of 2 Economy Class seats (Y-Class)

● 1 First Class seat (F-Class) takes the space of 3 Economy Class seats (Y-Class)

Basics (Cargo):

● A plane with 100% large load configuration will have 70% of the original capacity (If

the original capacity is 100,000lbs, 100% Large Load will have 70,000lbs capacity)

● Large Load is more profitable than Heavy Load

● Cargo demand is based on PAX demand: Large Load demand = Y-Class demand x

500; Heavy Load demand = J-Class demand x 1000.

a) Price

This one is quite obvious, as new players can’t afford the most expensive planes, however,

there are few things to consider here: Multiple cheaper planes will be more profitable than

one expensive one. The DC-10-10 with 250 seats – more than the 90 seats of the DC-9-10 –

will be more profitable than 1 DC-9-10, but since you can buy 10 DC-9s for the price of 1

DC-10-10 (which will carry 900 pax!!), you will make more money using the DC-9.

b) Capacity

Easy: More passengers/more cargo = more profit. Not much to say here.

c) Speed

Yes. This is more important than fuel and co2 efficiency. Higher speed = more profit: You can

cover more distance in the same time. But higher speed can also cause trouble, if the range

is low so you can only operate short flights while you can’t be online all the time, so you can’t

depart them all the time.

d) Efficiency

If you have default tanks, this is actually quite important as you can’t get your fuel at $300 all

the time.

Fuel consumption is measured in lbs/km; if the consumption is 20lbs/km that means for

every km flown the plane needs 20lbs of fuel. If you operate a 5,000km route, your plane

would consume 20x10,000=200,000lbs of fuel, at a fuel price of $600 it will cost you

$120,000.

CO² emission is measured in kg/pax/km for pax and kg/1k/km for cargo(1k refers to 1000lbs

cargo), that means every passenger pollutes x kg per km, so the formula is Consumption x

(Y class pax + J class pax x 2 + F class pax x 3) x route distance for pax Consumption x

Cargo Onboard / 1000 x route distance for cargo. However as there’s a random factor, this is

not the exact formula. If the consumption is 0.2/pax/km with 300 pax onboard, the plane will

roughly need 0.2x300x5000=300,000 quotas, at a price of $130 it will cost you $39,000

e) Good Planes (PAX):

These planes are the best at every stage:

Starter:

● DC-9-10

● BAe 146-300

2nd Stage:

● MC-21-400

● DC-10-10

Mid game:

● IL-96-400

● B747SP

End game:

● B747-8

● A380-800

f) Good Planes (Cargo):

Start with cargo:

● A400M

● B757-200F

2nd stage:

● IL-96T

● A330-200F

3rd stage:

● B747-400F

● B747-8F

End game:

● A380-800F

● An225

The An-124 is not more profitable than the 747-8F because it’s so slow.

2. ROUTES

This part is player and plane specific, as the flight duration should match your sleep pattern.

If you can depart your planes frequently, go for short haul routes as they earn more than

long haul routes due to the Ax + B ticket formula. If you can’t depart your planes every 2

hours to keep flying, go for long haul routes, as planes that don’t fly won’t earn anything.

Demand:

Every route has a maximum amount of pax per day. If you have a plane with 250 Y-Class

capacity and fly on a route with 1000Y/300J/150F demand, you will deplete the demand after

5 flights; but you can configure your plane with J and F-class seats so you don’t drain the

Y-demand that much. Look for routes with enough demand so you won’t have to ground your

plane due to low demand.

Stopovers:

You can create a stopover to increase the range of your aircraft. But be aware, that:

1. You will lose money with longer routes, due to the Ax + B ticket price formula that makes

short routes more profitable.

2. Stopovers are only refueling stops, they don’t affect the demand or pax onboard.

3. Unlike the previous versions of AM, the direct distance between departure and destination

airport matters – not the flight distance. So you should keep your flight path as straight as

possible to avoid unnecessary detour.

Ticket prices:

PAX: Multiply the auto-price by 1.1 for Y-Class, 1.08 for J-Class and 1.06 for F-Class. Round

down to 1.

Cargo: Multiply the auto-price by 1.1 for Large Load and 1.08 for Heavy Load. Round down

to 0.01

3. MAINTENANCE

There are two kinds of maintenance: A-Checks and wear.

A-Check:

Every plane needs an A-Check after a certain amount of flight hours, mostly 350-500 hours.

It’s very important to do A-Checks as you might audited if you don’t do A-Checks. Keep in

mind that your plane has to be at a hub or at your base in order to do A-Checks.

Wear repair:

As A-Checks include wear, you will probably never have to do any wear repairs. If you reach

50% wear, the plane won’t contribute to your alliance anymore. If you reach 90% wear, the

game forces you to do a repair as you can’t depart your plane then.

4. MARKETING

You will probably notice that your planes are only half full. This is because your standard

reputation is 49%. Without marketing, it’s not possible to increase your reputation above

49%; Yes, you have to buy it again and again.

As you are probably starting with small regional aircrafts like the DC-9 or Bae 146-300, it’s

recommended to buy the eco campaign, but not the airline reputation campaign (the more

expensive one). When you start to buy better planes, such as the MC-21 or the DC-10, you

should start buying the reputation campaign as well; the best option is the 4th one, however

as this can be quite risky (you can end up with 18% reputation!!) you can also buy the 3rd

campaign.

5. FUEL AND CO2

Fuel is very important for your airline – your planes can’t fly without fuel. Try to buy fuel as

cheap as possible, buying cheap fuel is very important, especially if you have inefficient

planes such like the IL-96. Fuel prices will fluctuate between $300/1000lbs and

$3000/1000lbs and will change every 30 minutes. If your tank is small, buying it below $1000

is already quite good. But if you have a big tank with enough storage for days, you can also

try to buy it below $500 or even below $400. Occasionally there are events called ‘fuel

bonanzas’ which will let the price drop below $300.

CO2 is not as important as fuel, but don’t let it go into the negatives! Otherwise your

reputation will drop by 10% and you won’t be able to use the eco friendly campaign to

increase your reputation by 10%. Quotas seem to be cheap – but in reality, they aren’t. 1

quota is way cheaper than 1lbs of fuel, but as you need way more quotas than fuel, you will

have to pay a fortune for that. CO2 quota prices will fluctuate between $100/1000 quotas

and $200/1000 quotas; it’s considered as cheap if it’s below $120. CO2 bonanzas can occur

as well.

6. STAFF

Like in the real world, your airline has employees – pilots, flight attendants, engineers and

technicians. You should keep their moral high to avoid losing passengers, as low morale will

result in less passengers onboard. But before you say that increasing the salary all the time

will let you go bankrupt somewhen, lemme tell you a way to decrease your salary: “The

Million Dollar Tip”.

1. Complete management training

2. Issue paycuts until it says “Salary cannot be lowered if morale is below 50%”.

3. Increase their salary until you reach 100% morale.

4. Repeat 2. and 3. until you reached the minimum salary.

5. Voila! You successfully decreased your salary!

7. THE STOCK MARKET

You can access to the stock market once you performed IPO (Initial Public Offering). You will

be able to buy shares of other companies and other companies will be able to buy your

shares.

-The value of shares is determined by the share value (what a coincidence!). If the share

value (‘SV’) of a company is $200, one share is worth $200. If the share value is $550, one

share will cost you $550.

-And this is how you make money: [u]Buy low, sell high[/u]. If you buy 10000 shares of a

company when their share value was $1 and sell those shares when their share value is

$1000, you paid $10000 and got $10,000,000 – that means you made $9,990,000 profit.

-You don’t earn anything if someone else buys your shares.

-You can buy 20k shares in a single company and 100k shares in total.

-You can increase your own shares in the bonus section, it’ll cost you 300 points. However

it’s not recommended to do that as there’s no benefit of having many shares to sell.

It’s quite hard and time consuming to earn a lot in the stock market and you will probably

earn more if you buy planes with your money.

8. TRAINING

You can train your staff to unlock special abilities which will save you money. The training

options are:

Management Training

● Completing this is necessary to decrease your staff salary with the method explained

earlier.

Operation Training

● Reduce A/C wear

● Reduce repair costs

● Reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emission

Event Training

● Unlocks events

Service Training

● Increase Fleet Limit

● Unlock Catering

Cargo Training

Will be unlocked once you unlock cargo in the bonus section.

● Increase Cargo Fleet Limit

● Increases Load Capacity by 6%

You need one training point every time you train someone. You will get them through leveling

up; you will level up through departing your planes.

If you completed all training options and have training points over, you can do nothing with

them. Perhaps the developer will add more training options in the future.

It’s recommended to finish fleet manager training first, as you can buy 28 additional planes

then.

9. BONUS POINTS

Bonus points (or ‘BP’) are a special currency of AM4 which are used to buy ‘power-ups’ and

things like that. The most important functions are:

● Buying hubs; each hub will cost you 20 points.

● Increasing your fuel and CO2 tank; it will cost you 400 points to increase your fuel

tank by 2,500,000lbs and 300 points to increase your CO2 tank by 2,500,000 quotas.

● Unlocking Cargo operations; this will cost you 450 points.

How to get points:

● Completing achievements; each achievement will give you some points. Some will

give you 5 points, while others can give you 50 points.

● You can randomly receive 1-4 points while departing your planes.

● Am3 bonus code; if you played AM3 prior to the release of AM4, you will have a

bonus code in your profile there.

● And of course you can support the developer and buy the points in the bonus shop.

10. HUBS

As you progress in the game, you will buy more and more planes… and planes need routes.

Somewhen you will probably run out of good routes, so you think about buying a new hub.

Here are some good hubs:

Asia

● Seoul Incheon, South Korea, ICN/RKSI

● Singapore, Singapore, SIN/WSSS

● Hong Kong, Hong Kong/China, HKG/VHHH

● New Delhi, India, DEL/VIDP

● Dubai, UAE, DXB/OMDB

● Manama, Bahrain, BAH/OBBI

Australia

● Sydney intl, Australia, SYD/YSSY

● Canberra, Australia, CBR/YSCB

● Nadi, Fiji, NAN/NFFN (only good for long haul)

Europe

● London Heathrow, UK, LHR/EGLL

● Amsterdam Shiphol, Netherlands, AMS/EHAM

● Frankfurt intl, Germany, FRA/EDDF

● Paris Charles de Gaulle, France, CDG/LFPG

North America

● New York John F. Kennedy, USA, JFK/KJFK

● Dallas Fort-Worth, USA, DFW/KDFW

● Chicago O’Hare, USA, ORD/KORD

● Los Angeles, USA, LAX/KLAX

South America

● Sao Paolo Guarulhos, Brazil, GRU/SBGR

● Santiago de Chile, Chile, SCL/SCEL

● Caracas, Venezuela, CCS/SVMI

● Buenos Aires int, Argentina, EZE/SAEZ

Africa

● Tunis, Tunisia, TUN/DTTA

● Luanda, Angola, LAD/FNLU

● Dakar L.S. Senghor, Senegal, DKR/DOOY

11. OTHER FEATURES

Banking

Once you reach level 10, you will unlock banking. You will be able to create different bank

accounts and deposit money there. Sounds good, right? [b]But it is not good[/b]: The bank

will charge a 2% deposit fee and won’t give you interest. So it makes no sense to deposit

your money.

Catering

You can unlock Catering in the training section. After unlocking it, you can go to “hubs” ->

select a hub -> Click “Add Catering” -> Select meal type and duration -> Click “Purchase”.

The meals will be sold on outbound flights of this hub.

● If you sold all meals, you have to wait until the contract ends to buy more meals.

● You will not sell meals on inbound flights.

● Catering is not very profitable, so it’s recommended to train the other features first.

● Catering might increase the chance of randomly receiving BP.

Loyalty Points

You will earn Loyalty Points (or LP) if you upvote a post (+1) or if someone else upvotes your

post (+2). You will lose Loyalty Points if someone downvotes your post (-4). According to the

FAQ you can receive bonus points if you gather enough Loyalty Points, but this feature isn’t

available yet.

Source by : Global Air Transport (The Goon Squad)