Best Airport to Start in

[wnnl]

In a full world map, what do you think is the best airport to start in?

[CHR]

It really depends how you play and where other people are based. There are three major factors I would consider in choosing a base: number of passengers (more being better), number of near by airports (more being better) and competition (less being better). Competition can be gaged roughly by how many people are based in a certain city. Naturally the more desirable airports will have more competition, however, you may be able to find one with a good balance of the two.

The largest airports, particularly early in the game, will usually make you more money - allowing you to expand quicker, but require more route editing to do so (increase competition). Smaller airports (say in Europe or America, not the top 10 or so) will often have a few, or even no competitors, but still allow good profits.

[citogaston]

I think CHR is correct in his post; you should find a balance and not necessarily hop right in to the big airports unless you're willing to do the work to keep up with it.

Personally, it's up to any player to decide what sort of airline he/she wants to run. If you want to be a global force, you'll have to consider the big airports. But, if you are happy flying a small commuter airline, there is no need to create a hub at a monster airport. Consider your goals for the game: Do you want to be a major airline, just want to have fun, dominate a few mid-sized hubs (like Southwest, for example).

Usually, I find a mix and pick some airports that have some meaning to me (airports I like and have flown through, airports near where I live, etc.)

Have fun with the game!

[wishfulanthony]

I believe that you might want to base your base airport according to the following:

- where you live (sometimes, the airport where you live could bring you inspiration to fly further out from where airlines/aircraft fly out to right now)
- how competitive you want to be (the bigger airports mean more expensive gates, but that means you can really compete well with other carriers)
- your future strategies (you might want to start up doing regional and domestic trips first rather than doing that Transatlantic flight)

I could give you more, but I'm currently in a meeting.

[Shawa]

Bad boy anthony Tsk tsk tsk

[fazon]

If your willing to dedicate quite some time to your airline, London Heathrow since it is extremely close to major airports in Europe and can be handled by small planes.

[wishfulanthony]

[Shawa] that's all right, and oh, btw, I also tutored kids today, contributing more activity time for me :p

[Fazon] that's a very good idea, but will that mean investing a lot in renting several gates? How about ORY, LCY, CDG, LIN, MXP, GVA, RTM, or FRA for a change?

[CHR]

FRA usually gets lots of people basing in it. CDG if often quite good. LHR is usually busy, but I think it is better than FRA. Some of the smaller (20 million pax) airports are often good too.

[fazon]

[Shawa] that's all right, and oh, btw, I also tutored kids today, contributing more activity time for me :p

[Fazon] that's a very good idea, but will that mean investing a lot in renting several gates? How about ORY, LCY, CDG, LIN, MXP, GVA, RTM, or FRA for a change?

What do you mean?

[sne]

hi i started with a base in atlanta and now i created a focus city en copenhagen because i prefere europe. i closed my starting base in atlanta but now i have to create another one but it only allows me to create in america. why? thx

[CHR]

Your home continent is still in America as it was where you first based.

Each world has a limit on the number of bases you can build, as you would see on the world selection page under Focus Cities. The first continent you base in becomes your home continent. Any other continents are foreign. The world selection page will tell you how many foreign and how many total bases you are allowed. You may not exceed the number of foreign bases allowed. However, although each base on your home continent counts for one base out of the total, each foreign base counts for two bases out of the total. You therefore may not actually have the full number of "total" bases, as the foreign ones take up more spots.

If you give me the world number, I could see what your problem is. However, I think you would be unable to make any more foreign bases for one of two reasons.
Firstly, your world only allows one foreign base - Copenhagen is that.
Secondly, the world only allows you to have three total bases - Copenhagen takes up two base slots, leaving you one base slot - only allowing you to base in North America. Naturally, however, a world only allowing three total bases could only possibly allow one foreign base, as you can only have equal to or less than half the total number bases as foreign bases.

[sne]

PW#1164. boeing snow plow     4/3/1984     25 years left     30/30     2 x Boeing 737-200 Adv. HGW     €500,000     [6] 12


thx. but can i change my base continent?

[CHR]

If you only have one foreign base in Copenhagen, then you should be able to build up to 5 more bases in Europe (bring your total foreign bases to 6 and your total "bases" to 12).

You can't change your base continent without a reset (start again - losing all planes and money). You would need to contact an AM admin at  from the email you used to register to reset.

[DkCr]

To answer the OP's question, the bigger airports 300k+ airports in Europe and North America will yield the most if you can maintain your routes. If you find other regions interesting and you don't really have to live there lol, they can still be profitable if you choose your airports wisely, you also might want to consider acquiring a large foreign base to greatly boost your income in the smaller regions. As for me, I live in the outskirts of NYC, but I tend to base on continents outside where I already live.  The fun factor comes in playing a region not many will base at and try to do well on it and pull that continent 'up' among the 1st class continents.

When I played in Central America in one of the Full World map in a public world, I started out in Mexico city as Aeromexico then chose a nearby large foreign base in Houston as my second focus city. Also played Africa twice as South African Airways, I chose ORLY and MUC for my foreign focus city and the rest are African airports. They all increased the airline value tremendously. If you want to make all your hubs local, that's fine too, just pick the big ones and ones with lots of airports in the area. If all else fails, pick whatever region appeals to you at that moment