Facebook’s Airline Manager: Tips & Tricks
by Stewart on 10/12/09 at 3:51 pm
Flying with different companies all over the world, inevitably makes you wonder: how intriguing or difficult could be to lead an airline? Until you’ll find that out you could try one of Facebook’s applications, that offers you the chance to create and manage your own company: Airline Manager.
You start off with a couple of million dollars and a Boieng (B737-800, to be more precise). It’s up to you to create your first route, there are plenty of airports all over the world. But first, make sure you select a couple of cities that have a demand of more than 90%. You can check the demand of the cities in the Flight section, at Find Routes. Re-order them decreasingly by demand each time you get here, in order to make your flights more profitable.
Keep in mind that each aircraft type has a different range and your destination should be within its range, or else you cannot create the route. Also, do not forget that the demand of the cities vary, they increase and decrease in time, so check your flights constantly – you should close the route when you have too much empty seats.
When buying new planes, order them by price. Don’t spend all of your money on purchasing a new aircraft, there is a fee for creating a new route and you also have to spend some money on fuel and advertising. Also, always choose the plane with the lowest fuel consumption, the biggest range and the largest passenger capacity.
Once you have set up your first routes, you have to manually start the flights, in order to make money. You’ll see that even if the demand on one of your routes is very high (97-99%), you’ll still have empty seats on your planes. That is because you have to advertise your routes in order to have your planes full. There are five types of advertising, the cross-country newspaper advertising and the billboards being the most efficient ones.
You’ll notice that the prices of advertising and fuel vary, as well. The lowest price for fuel I’ve seen is $400 per 1,000 lbs and the cheapest advertising I’ve purchased was $5,000 for billboards/day. In times like these, when you have the finances, buy as much fuel and advertising as you can!
If you buy a new plane, you’re automatically hiring new staff. They have wages, so make sure that at the end of the day, you have in you account balance their daily salary. Once your company grows, so will the financial expectations of your employees. If they will call on a strike, that will not affect your flights, only your balance. Make sure you give them a raise as soon as possible, since it is much more expensive to go on with a strike than paying the regular salary.
Depending on your performances, your stock rate will rise or drop. Make sure your balance is positive, you have profitable flights and that you don’t have any work protests to keep your rate growing. Also, if you have the money, invest in profitable companies and sell stock after a while, if you’re in need of money. It’s a great way to make money, playing as a broker. Check how you’re doing on the stock market in the overview section and from time to time promote your airline, to get more investors.
Obtaining achievments gets you money awards. In your first day of activity, when every dollar counts, you can easily obtain an achievement by choosing a hub and uploading a logo. Another way to get benefits for your company is by gathering pax points (calculated on the basis of the satisfaction of your passengers, the flights/incidents taken and a random factor).
Maybe the greatest tool you can use when playing AM is the one you can find it here. Using it is a real time saver, since you don’t have to search the most profitable destinations, you have them all there and you can easily sort them by demand.
If you’re already an user of the application and you have some other tips and tricks for all the newbies out there, share them here with us! Also, if you have any doubts or questions about the game, comment here and I will give you my advice. Good luck, managers!
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Nikos
Jan 31st, 2010
I’m just confused on how to create a hub. I’ve been playing this app for a week know and I can only get up to 0.11 increase, do you have any suggestions?
Stewart
Feb 1st, 2010
To create a hub, go to Overview and then choose Profile. You can select your desired hub from there.
Regarding the stock price: try to keep only the profitable routes and to cut the costs – buy the fuel/advertising in advance, only at the lowest prices. Save money for purchasing new planes and opening new routes.
The stock rate will start growing if you keep buying planes, open new routes and constantly start your flights.
FireFly_Z
Feb 8th, 2010
hi..i wan ask something..NOW..i dont have money to buy fleets..how i can buy fleets???which one should I buying aircraft before? …because im NEW….
Stewart
Feb 8th, 2010
Now, you started with a B737-800. Get the best out of it, find the most profitable route you can fly on. It will be your main source of income.
I started with some ATRs: they’re cheap, they’re fuel efficient, and do not require a large number of employees. I preferred the ATR 72-500 and ATR-200 models.
After buying 10-15 ATRs, you’ll see that you have enough money to buy larger planes. At the beginning, it takes patience.
Good luck!
Ali
Feb 11th, 2010
hi…
I wan Ask Something..
I Dont know when fuel prices down..
Now my fuel Negatives..
So….i wait for a long time to fuel price down….
If like this.. i dont know when i can buy a plane..
im Stop Here…
Stewart
Feb 11th, 2010
Ali,
Unfortunately you will have to wait until you can afford to buy some fuel. If you are willing to pay to grow your account balance, you can hit the “increase” option at the bottom of the application.
If you have no option, restart the game.
Kavi
Feb 11th, 2010
Hi,
What exactly does pushing the increase button do?
Stewart
Feb 11th, 2010
You can increase your account balance by purchasing Airline Manager dollars with real life dollars, from your PayPal account: http://apps.facebook.com/airline_manager/increase.php
For each transaction you will also receive PAX bonus points.
Ian
Feb 12th, 2010
How much stock can I sell in my Airline?
Thanks
Stewart
Feb 15th, 2010
Sell as much as you’d like.
You can always check how many stock do you own, by checking the “Status” option in the “Stock” section.
Moreover, try to promote your airline at least once every two-three days. But do not do this if your stock price is falling, otherwise you won’t attract too many investors!
David Ferreira
Feb 18th, 2010
Hi, I started playing this a few days ago and this was one of the first guides i saw online, it has been very helpfull, thankyou for that!
The question i have is what determines Airport taxes and fees?
no one has been able to give me some kind of formula or something..
Thanks mate!
Ever F
Feb 18th, 2010
Hello. I have been seeing that some companies have stocks. I have not been able -after a while- to sell some stocks of my company. Actually, I do not have a clue what do I have to do in order to offer stocks. I sent a couple of weeks ago some invitations to 8-10 (? Don’t remember how many) friends for them to invest in my company, but up to now I have not seen any changes, any stocks, or anything.
How does this stock selling work?
Stewart
Feb 18th, 2010
David,
I don’t know exactly what the formula is, but as I noticed it is strongly related with the type of the airplane and the length of the route. Therefore, expect some pretty high taxes if you’re using a 787 to fly from Europe to Australia. It never happened to me though to have taxes higher than $200k. The larger the aircraft, the bigger the taxes.
Ever F,
You don’t just have to invite friends, you have to promote your airline (“advertise” your company) so that other players will buy your stock). You can do this by using the “Promote” option in the “Overview” section. Remember not to do do this if your stock progress chart shows decreases, since that will be the first thing that an investor will consider when thinking about buying your stock.
Aiman
Mar 10th, 2010
Hi …………… my question is….. how to find an airplane that contain less fuel, large number of passenger and…. can go far…….??
Stewart
Mar 10th, 2010
Well, you just have to browse the list of the airplanes and search something that fits your criteria…
Open new tabs for every airplane that yo consider buying it, compare them and then make the best decision for your airline.
Aiman
Mar 11th, 2010
how do ATR airplane help to increase our stok……………. are ATR more good then the other airplane…..??
Stewart
Mar 11th, 2010
It’s just like any other plane: if you own it and if your ATR is profitable, it will help increasing your stock.
Make sure your flights are profitable and close down the ones that are less popular, to make profit and increase your stock value.
Aiman
Mar 12th, 2010
thanks…………… you no a lot of good tips ……… have fun playing Airline Manager…..my friend..
Aiman
Mar 12th, 2010
One more thing, what is Company Value………………… is it our money….??
Niko
Mar 12th, 2010
hello, i don’t understand what’s stock. can you tell me that ? thank you.
Niko
Mar 12th, 2010
and one more.. how to increase stock
neha
Apr 15th, 2010
in airline manger can we give money to friends if we have more in our account or the friends require money at this time
neha
Apr 21st, 2010
can u guide me if we can give money to our friends in the airlline manager
Stewart
Apr 21st, 2010
Hey guys,
Sorry for the delays, here are the answers:
@Aiman: Your company value represents the sum of your assets: aircrafts, current money, fuel and so on.
@Niko: Stock refers to the stock market. Just like in the real world, here you can buy other airline’s stock and sell it, depending on your available cash. The stock price of every’s airline varies, it is determined by the airline performance, as I wrote in the article.
@neha: You cannot transfer money into your friend’s account, as far as I know. It sucks, I know, but in this simulation, everybody has to make it on his own.
lamalonely
May 18th, 2010
what is pax point??? how can it be increased?? n what r the uses of pax point???
m unknown at its point
jobjed
Jun 3rd, 2010
i like the erj-145xr. its 1 mil but it only has 3lbs per km, has 3.7km range and 50 passengers. u can make 60k each trip and only spend 11000lbs fuel.
din
Jul 2nd, 2010
first, thank you for sharing this with us. i appreciate it =)
wanna ask. i bought fuel in a large amount, but my company value and stock rate went down. why? and u said in your answer to aiman that company value represents fuel also.
hope u can explain this. thanks. hehehee =)
Stewart
Jul 2nd, 2010
@din: Both company value and the stock rate are an unknown formula that takes into consideration your fleet, routes, stocks, investments, fuel, damages and so on. By buying so much fuel, maybe your cash went down a little bit too much than it would normally do, so that your company image and your stock value were also affected. Keep flying your routes on a regular basis and keep making profit and your company image should grow back in no time.
@lamalonley: pax points are calculated on the basis of the satisfaction of your passengers, the flights/incidents taken and a random factor.
DTM
Jul 7th, 2010
How can I reset my staff wages asap, preferably for free. I dont have enough PAX points to do this and my wages are all over the place causing thousands of pounds over paid. Please help, thanks
Tej
Jul 8th, 2010
Nice game
but when i go to promote and try to buy some shares, there would be no stocks avalible in any of the companys. why is that so? Or is there any other place where i have to go to buy shares.
Stewart
Jul 9th, 2010
@DTM: you can only adjust your staff salaries from the Staff Management section of the game. I am not aware of any other method. But hey, you don’t have to give them a pay raise every time they’re asking for it. I don’t rise their salaries unless they’re in strike.
@Tej: you have to click on the airline’s name and on its profile, you can buy/sell stocks by clicking the button under the stock value.
KARTIK
Jul 12th, 2010
HI,
I WANTED TO KNOW HOW DO I PUT A LOGO IN MY COMPANY. I TRIED MANY LOGOS BUT ALL WERE REJECTED. PLEASE HELP ME.
ONE MORE QUESTION IS THAT DO U PLAY THIS GAME. AND IF YES THEN CAN U TELL THE NAME OF U R COMPANY SO THAT I CAN BUY STOCKS.
arjuna008
Jul 25th, 2010
i also need a help wit da airline logo!!! they hav just mentioned da name of a website bt there r no pic which wil suitable 4 my airline…son hw cn i upload a pic???
DHRUV
Jul 27th, 2010
hello,
i wanna ask that how can we buy and serve meals in our airlines.?? plzz tell me fast
DHRUV
Jul 27th, 2010
SMACK AIRLINES buy 200,000 JUST RS.22,000 nd in days my stock will turn from 0.11 to 11.0 then just calculate how much money will u get back instead of 22,000