A new carrier in [BETA] Airline Executive starts with a name, one airport, one used jet, and $1,000,000. Nothing earns ticket money until a second airport exists and a plane is assigned to the line you draw.
Before you confirm the name
The company name is public on the server. A standard profile cannot change it later. The Early Supporter pass included one free rename, and the store listing said that pass would be removed on 2026-10-23, with earlier buyers grandfathered. Treat the first name as permanent unless you already own that pass.
Open a route that can pay
- Take the included airport as headquarters in a cluster of cities. Atlanta is the documented starting-headquarters example because nearby fields keep the first leg short.
- Click a second city on the globe and read the price before you buy. In one recorded setup, Kansas City was the second airport and cost under $1.5 million. That figure is a session price, not a fixed catalog rate. If the node costs more than you can fly, pick a closer field.
- Draw the path with the mouse from the headquarters to the airport you just bought. A single owned airport cannot operate a commercial leg.
- Assign the used jet. Gameplay notes on the Boeing 737-200 put a used airframe near 65 percent condition. That is an observed entry state, not a guarantee for every tail.
- Set the fare on the route card. The control is a multiple of market value: 1.00x is market value, and the multiple applies to every leg. An official card shows 0.80x as one setting, which fills seats and cuts margin.
- Open the fleet menu and service the jet before the next departures stack up. Regulators ground old jets that skip maintenance.
What a finished first loop looks like
The plane has a tail number, a passenger load, a progress readout, and an airframe condition. One tracking example also showed a 6 percent tailwind. When the leg lands, ticket income hits the balance and fuel plus wear have already been charged. A recorded Atlanta–Kansas City trip on an older jet paid about $250,000. Use that only as a scale check for a short domestic hop, then read your own route card.
What to ignore on day one
Do not buy London Heathrow, Rome, or a long overwater line until a wide-body and a cash buffer exist. Do not spend the whole million on research or a second aircraft before the first leg has landed. Banks offer loans; published terms for those loans are not available, so the safe opening is the cash you already have.
Next, match distance to aircraft in Keep the fleet flying and read the fare card in Plan routes and fares.