Air Bucks v.1.2

Thank you for buying this product.  It is the result of a great deal of 
hard work and careful thought, and we hope that it will give you many 
hours of enjoyment.

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improvement.  If you have any comments or suggestions about this 
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Air Bucks Version 1.2

Credits:

Version 1.0 Programming:	Edward Grabowski
Version 1.2 Upgrade:
Programming:			Scott Woodrick
Graphics:			Jon Baker
				Erik Casey
Sound	: 			Christopher Denman
V1.0 Graphics Preparation:	Margaret Grabowski

Documentation:
				Chris Bamford
				Chris Foster
				David Lester
Research: 			Mark Saunders
Cover Art			Creative Advertising and Printing







Version 1.0 Game Testers:
	David Lester
				Chris Bamford
				James Hunter
				Chris Foster
				Vaughin T. Clark
				Alan Emrich
				Tom Carbone
Version 1.2 Key
Game Testers			Eric Ouellette
				Hosea Battles
				Arlon Harris
				Jennifer Schlickbernd
				... and many more!

... and special thanks to everyone who bought the original Air Bucks for 
their many comments and suggestions.		




Contents

Introduction
Objectives							
Getting Started: Into the Wild Blue Yonder 		
The Interface						
Game Options							
The Main Screen						
Landing Rights						
Establishing Routes	
Planes		
Finance and Economics	
Special Events: Trouble on the Horizon			
Tutorial							
Strategy Guide						
Route Strategies					
Cargo Strategies						
Questions and Answers	
Technical Support	


Introduction

The game begins in 1946.  You have invested your last hard-earned 
dollar to found your own fledgling airline company - Air Bucks.  
Starting with only $100,000 and one small Dakota DC-3, it is up to you 
to make the key decisions which will decide whether Air Bucks will 
mature into a globe spanning empire, or wither and fail.

If you can last, the game will span the ensuing years and decades.  Not 
only will your own fortunes evolve, you will also live through this 
period of modern history.  The world about you will change.  Whether 
it’s the introduction of the first civilian jet airplane, or the death of a 
great world leader, no year will be the same as the last.  PC users will 
see newspaper updates illustrating the significant recent events at the 
end of each game year.  Thus history provides the backdrop for the 
success story called...  Air Bucks!


Objectives

Air Bucks begins in 1946, when you are 25 years old, and continues 
until you are ready to retire 40 years later.  At the end of each year, and 
again at the end of the game, the airline industry will announce its 
awards - to the companies with the highest turnover, largest fleet, and 
most air routes.  Your goal is to finish the game with the best rating in 
each category.

If you fail to do this but your ratings are good, you have still expanded 
from one stretch of Florida asphalt to a world-wide airline, and made a 
few bucks in the bargain.  At the very least, you should try to keep your 
airline solvent until the end of 1985.

Regularly throughout the game, you will receive updates of your 
progress - are you the biggest, the richest, the most popular airline? The 
better these assessments are, the better you are doing.

You will also be shown financial results for each airline every year.  Air 
Bucks is one of four main competitors vying to control the world’s 
airways.  The others are:

Trans Global International (TGI)
International GT (IGT)
Great Times Inc. (GTI)

In fact, each of the four can be assigned to computer or human control, 
or disabled altogether.  This allows up to four players to compete.



Getting Started: 
Into the Wild Blue Yonder

Air Bucks is first and foremost an enjoyable, fun game, and secondly an 
airline simulation.  Your main decisions will be:

	Which airports to buy landing rights for
	When to buy new planes, and how to outfit them
	What routes to send which plane on
	How much to charge on each route
	How to market your airline

When you have a large fleet flying all of the best routes more profitably 
than your competitors, you know you are on the right track.


The Interface

Air Bucks is designed with an easy to use, pull-down menu interface 
which can be controlled entirely by mouse or keyboard.

Pressing a key while over an icon or command works in the same way 
as pressing the mouse button, so keyboard commands will not work 
when selecting a command with the mouse.

When the computer player is thinking and carrying out his plans, the 
mouse pointer will change to a picture of a computer.  During this time, 
you will not be able to enter commands into the computer.

Across the top of the screen is a bar containing the titles of several pull-
down menus.  To select a menu, either click on the title, or type its 
highlighted first letter on the keyboard.  A menu of commands will 
appear; to choose one, just click or type in the same way.

To leave a menu, press the space bar, or click outside of the menu area.  
Most screens that will appear over the main map can be left in the same 
way.  It is important to note that game time only passes when no menus 
are being used, so exit your menu if you want the game to proceed.

To ensure that the computer will recognize all keyboard commands, 
always remember to leave your CAPS LOCK key switched off.

Finally, whenever you are using the mouse to alter quantities - for 
example changing ticket prices - clicking with the right mouse button 
will produce several additions or subtractions in quick succession.

To speed up the process of entering numbers, certain screens (for 
example the ticket price screen) will allow you to type in a value 
directly.  To do this, simply highlight the field that you wish to alter and 
type the new number.  When finished, press Enter/Return.

Game Options

The first menu from the left is titled "Air Bucks."  It has a number of 
commands which will change the way the game plays:

Sound FX lets you toggle music and sound effects on or off 
independently of each other.

Game Speed determines how quickly the months and years of game 
time pass.

If you have a lot of decision-making to do by the end of the current 
month, it is a good idea to switch to a moderate speed.  When you are 
happy with your operation, you can then change to Fast or Turbo, and 
watch how things progress.

Difficulty determines how long it will take that company to acquire new 
landing sites, and how frequently planes will develop mechanical errors, 
among other factors.  To set the difficulty for an airline, click on the 
displayed current level, or type the number of the airline (1, 2, 3 or 4).

Initially, the size of each airport city in the game is a reflection of the 
size and air traffic of that city in real life.  The Randomize city size 
option within the Difficulty screen will reset each airport city in the 
world to small, medium or large. Since the location of larger cities is 
crucial to many decisions, this demands different strategies from the 
players.
Note:  The size of cities is measured relative to each other with a 
percentage system. Cities from 1% to 29% are small, cities from 30% to 
50% are medium, and cities from 60% to 100% are large.  As the years 
pass, all cities will grow, but their relative sizes will change little. Only 
a few cities will show significant relative growth or decline. Keep an 
eye out for them. 

Other options on the Difficulty panel are New Plane Each Year, Base, 
and Easy First Three Years. New Plane Each Year speeds up the debut 
of new plane models which would normally appear on a more 
occasional and historically accurate schedule. You can toggle this on or 
off within the first month, not after that.

Base allows you to change the city that your airline is based in. All four 
airlines begin from the same site, no matter what it has been changed to. 
You can only use this option right at the start of the game. Use the + 
and - keys to change your base, or select them with the mouse.

Easy First Three Years is an option that gives you a "grace period" of 
three years, where it will be easier to turn a profit.

Customize allows you to change the name and logo for your airline. 
Select one of the four logos on the Customize panel to alter its 
background and name. Click Reset at any time to return to the original 
logo.


Player Types allows you to determine how many airlines will compete, 
and how they will be controlled.  There are four companies which 
appear in the game.  Each one can be given one of three settings:

Controlled by a human player
Controlled by the computer
Not in the game at all

To change the setting for one of the airlines, just click on the current 
status, or hit keys 1 - 4 repeatedly until the desired setting is shown.

Zoom Mode activates a scrolling view of the world. Use the scroll icons 
in the top right corner of the screen to move your view. Right click on 
them to scroll continuously.  Clicking on a city shows its name, size and 
owners. To see planes flying for other airlines, just choose that airline 
in the usual way (either click on the airline logo to cycle through the 
choices or press 1-4 to choose an airline. All commands can be 
accessed while in the zoom mode.


Air Bucks with Several Players

Air Bucks can be played with up to four human players.  However, 
since it runs in real time, rather than in turns or rounds, the players will 
have to come to some sort of agreement about who gets control of the 
computer when.  Our recommendation is to let each person have one 
opportunity to use the mouse per month.  Remember that game time 
stops whilst menus are being used.  

Making deals together adds a new dimension to multi-player games.  If 
two people agree to swap airports, for example, they can sell them to 
each other for the same price, using the Site Trade command.


Disk Options

If you wish to, you can save a game so that you can return to it later.  
Considering the length of real-time it takes to complete the forty years 
of the game, this will be an essential command.

If you click on the Load or Save options, a directory panel will appear 
with several options. A list of files with numbers is in the center of the 
panel. Either type a number or click on one of the names to select a file. 
If you have saved more games than are displayed, click the up and 
down buttons to see the rest. You can also choose a file name by 
clicking on File and typing it in .  Click on Load or Save (as 
appropriate) to accept the command, or Cancel to cancel the action.

The Main Screen

When you first enter the game, you will see a large map of the world.  
All of the airports for which you have landing rights (you start with just 
Miami although in Game Options you can change this to a different 
airport) will appear as red squares.  This map is the main screen, from 
which you will issue most commands.

Below the map is an information bar.  On the left of this is the flight 
number of your currently selected plane - AB0 at first.  To the right will 
be the current activity or location of the plane, your total current bank 
balance and finally the game date.

You will also see the Air Bucks logo and a clock icon.  The clock 
shows roughly how much of the current month has elapsed.  The logo 
tells you which of the four airlines you are commanding or viewing.

You are allowed to study the progress of your competitors.  To do so, 
click on the logo repeatedly, or type 1,2,3 or 4.  The Air Bucks sign will 
be replaced by the logo of one of the other airlines.  All of the 
commands which relate to information and analysis can be used with 
respect to every company.

For example, if you select a computer-played airline, and choose the 
Ticket Price command, you will be able to see the prices this other 
company charges, but you will not be able to change them.  

Icon panel:Seven of the major commands in Airbucks are available 
from the icon panel at the bottom of the screen. This panel appears 
when all menus are cleared from the screen. The commands are, from 
left to right, Buy Plane, Alter Route, Ticket Price, Plane Income, Next 
Plane, Previous Plane, and Zoom icon (Click here, then on any location 
on the world map to zoom to that location.)

Landing Rights

Your planes are only allowed to land at airports where you have landing 
rights.  When the game begins you and your competitors only have 
rights to Miami.  So your first step on the road to success is to find 
yourself a second airport to send planes to!  However, as the game 
progresses the early acquisition of landing rights is important, because 
only two airlines can have rights to each site.  For example, if two other 
airlines have applied for rights to New York, then you will never be 
able to fly there (unless another firm offers its rights for sale or goes 
bust, thus making all its landing rights available).  Commands for 
acquiring and handling landing rights are covered in the next chapter.


Miami 

Miami is a special airport.  All four airlines begin with landing rights 
there, and nobody will be able to sell those rights (since there is no one 
who needs to trade for it).  New airplanes are also delivered there unless 
you have selected somewhere else for this purpose.


Landing Rights 

The acquisition of certain, strategic landing rights can be one of the 
keys to building a successful airline.  This chapter discusses how you 
can seek out, negotiate for, acquire, and trade landing rights.  All of the 
pertinent commands are located in the Routes menu.


The Landing Rights Screen 

To acquire the right to land at an airport, select the Routes menu, and 
then the Negotiate New Site command.  You can only start one new 
application a month - if you try for another, your Negotiate command 
will be ignored.

Dots representing each airport will appear on the normal world map.  If 
your already have rights to an airport, it will be red.  White cities are 
ones you have bid for, but not yet been cleared to land at.  Airports still 
available are black, while those sites fully bought up and thus 
unavailable are green.


The information bar at the bottom of the landing rights screen will tell 
you about the currently selected city.  At the left are the name and size 
of the city.  Then comes the distance between it and the closest site you 
already own.  On the map, a line will join these two cities.  

Next, the time in months that it will take for the application to be 
processed is displayed.  Your first application will take one month, your 
second two and so on.  If you have set the difficulty level to hard or 
hardest, the process will be even slower.

Finally, you will see the current cost of these rights.  Small cities are 
cheapest, and large ones most expensive.  In addition to this initial 
payment, all landing rights bring a permanent annual charge.  This 
varies, but is usually around 10% of the current purchase price.

You can select a new city to examine by clicking on it, or you can step 
through the entire list using Next and Previous.


Buying Landing Rights 

When you are sure that you want to buy rights to the selected airport, 
click on Acquire.  After the necessary time has elapsed (see above), a 
screen will appear notifying you that your application has been 
approved, and landing rights have been granted.  Your planes will then 
be able to land at that airport.  However, you will still need to make 
Routes to lead planes to your new airports, which is explained in the 
next chapter.


Selling Landing Rights 

If you are desperate for cash, you can sell some of your landing rights.  
To do this, select the Routes menu, and then the Site Trade command.  
A list of all used airports will appear.  (Select More to page through 
longer lists.) Click on an airport which you own rights for, or type its 
reference number.  The computer opponents may offer bids for your 
rights.  Click on an airline or enter their number to accept the bid.  (To 
quit without accepting, select Cancel.)

Any other human players are given a chance to enter their own offers 
too.  Just type in your offer and press <Enter>. 


Negotiation Progress Report 

The Progress Report command on the Routes menu will show you how 
your current applications are proceeding.


Establishing Routes

After acquiring landing rights at a second airport, it is time to set up 
your first route.  The Alter Route command lets you set destinations for 
your currently selected plane.  For convenience, this command is under 
both the Routes and the Planes menu - there is no difference between 
them.


Setting up a New Route 

To define a new route, select Make within the Alter Route command.  
You can give a plane anywhere between two and eight destinations.  It 
will fly a continuous path through all of them, looping back to the first 
stop after the last unless you specify a charter flight by clicking on 
Service - then the plane will stop at the last site on the path (see 
below).
To set the first destination, click on the space next to the number "1" on 
the route panel, or just type in the number.  The world map will 
reappear, with your airports marked in red.  Click on the airport of your 
choice, or step through them all with Next and Previous.  Selecting Ok 
or pressing the space bar will confirm your choice of airport, while 
Remove will cancel the current destination.  Repeat this process to set 
up as many destinations as you want.  You can see the route 
diagrammed on the map by choosing View.
Once you have made a route you can either select Assign to allocate 
this route to the current plane, or Exit to leave this menu without 
allocating it to any plane.


Charging for your Route 

Having told your plane where to go, the next decision is what to charge 
the passengers.  The Ticket Price command (on both the Route and 
Planes menus) lets you do this.  For each leg of the journey, you can set 
three prices - for 1st class, 2nd class (coach) and Cargo.

Using this command brings up a screen with a grid of numbers, one for 
each class on each leg of the route.  To enter new prices, simply select 
the price you wish to input, using the mouse or cursor keys, and then 
type in your price between 0 and 999.  Pressing ENTER moves you to 
the next price automatically.  Also, within a given leg of a route, you 
can choose a particular class by selecting F(irst), E(conomy), or 
C(argo).

Check Plane Income allows you to view the projected income for any 
planes flying the current route with the current price structure. The cost 
of flying the route is included to help you gauge the profitability of the 
current prices. Click on Next to cycle through the planes assigned to 
that route (If there are any). Click outside the panel to exit it.

The Add and Subtract buttons allow you to increase or decrease ticket 
prices by a given percentage for all your routes. This causes widespread 
changes in your airline, so use with extreme caution!

You can alter all of the prices at once, by a certain percentage.  Change 
the displayed percentage (it starts at 10%) by selecting Increase or 
Decrease.  Then, use Up and Lower to raise or lower all prices for that 
route by that percentage of their current values.  

The Replicate option sets all prices for all classes and destinations to 
the value of the price currently selected. When you replicate prices, the 
price structure for the current route leg is replicated to all other legs of 
the route. 

The plus and minus signs on the Ticket Price panel (and on your 
keyboard) allow you to cycle through your routes, so that you may 
compare prices between routes or alter price structures for more than 
one route without exiting the screen and reentering.

Price check  will show you what tickets on the same route cost from 
your competitor, if anyone else is flying it.

If you want, you can set prices for a different route without exiting the 
screen and starting again.  Use + and - to move through the routes you 
have already created.

Income based on ticket fares is deposited to your checking account after 
every four days of game time. This means that even if you see your 
plane picking up passengers, the profits or losses will not show at the 
bottom of your screen until the next deposit occurs. These four-day 
transfers are noted in your Register for easy viewing (see Bank menu 
page 24.)


Adjusting old Routes and Prices 

Once you have defined a route, you can refer to it again later, and 
quickly assign more planes to it.  Every route you set up is given a 
number.  When you choose Alter Route, the black panel over the 
bottom right-hand corner of the map shows the route number of the 
current plane, and the number of planes using that route.  The route is 
also shown on the map.  Using Next and Previous, you can step through 
your routes.

Once you have selected the proper route, Report will give you the 
details on it, Amend will change it and Delete will erase it altogether.

It is important to remember that one route can be used by several 
planes.  In that situation, any changes made to either the route layout or 
to ticket prices will affect all of the planes using that route.  It you want 
a plane not to be affected by changes to a route, then you should create 
a new, individual route using Make, for the same places, and Assign it 
to this plane.

To change the ticket prices for a particular route, select Ticket Price 
from the Routes menu.  Then, use the same commands to change the 
prices as you did to set them originally.

You can view your airline by route by using the List Routes command. 
The main report screen gives the following information for each 
routes:route number, first city and last city, and the number of planes 
using it. By clicking on a route, a secondary report gives the ticket 
prices for all legs of the route, and a list of planes flying it. 



Switching a plane Between Routes 

Using the Alter Route command (on the Routes menu), it is also easy to 
move a plane from one route to another.  Just select the aircraft in 
question, then select Alter Route.  Step through the routes with Next 
and Previous.  Choose Report to get the details of the current route, and 
Assign to allocate the current route to the current plane.


Out-of-Range Routes 

When you assign a route, your trusty plane will head for the first stop, 
and start traveling the circuit ordered.  If any leg of the journey is too 
long for the craft’s range to handle, it will stop before heading to that 
destination, and send you a message requesting new orders.


Chartered and Scheduled routes 

Each route has a service type - Chartered or Scheduled.  A plane on a 
scheduled route will carry on flying indefinitely.  When it reaches its 
final destination, it will go back to its first stop, and repeat the same 
flight path.  Chartered planes stop when they reach their final 
destination.

Chartered routes are mainly used to get planes onto routes which are 
completely out of their range - e.g.  taking a new plane from Miami to 
Europe and using it there.  You can tell a plane to go somewhere and 
stop by making a route, and changing the service type to charter.  The 
plane will stop at the last destination, rather than looping back to the 
start of the list.  Having moved the plane to the right area, you can set 
up the actual, scheduled, route you want from it.

Cargo planes may also find chartering useful.  If you have a cargo plane 
which you always send to collect specific cargo loads as they appear, 
you will probably only want it to fly its route once.  Then it will wait 
there until you send it to pick up the next load of cargo that crops up.

Looking at All Your Routes 

The View Routes command on the Routes menu will show every route 
you are using on the world map.  This command is a good way of 
seeing if you have missed any potential routes between two cities by 
checking for a line connecting them.  You can also view the routes of 
your competitors.


Planes

Once you have created your first route, and started your DC-3 on its 
way, your airline will finally be operational.  Having done this, the next 
step is to expand.  For this, you need more landing rights, more routes, 
and most importantly, more planes.  The following commands and 
procedures are accessible from the Planes menu, and will help you 
purchase, configure, maintain and control the planes that make up your 
airline.


Selecting a Plane 

The commands that affect individual aircraft, such as Buy, Sell etc., all 
apply to the plane that is currently selected.  To select a new plane, go 
to the Planes menu, and use Previous and Next Plane to step through 
them all, or select List and click on the one you want.  (Under List 
planes, click on any of the planes listed to access complete information 
about the plane.) Remember that the information bar across the bottom 
of the screen tells you the number and status of your current plane.

If the plane is flying a route, its status will just be its current destination.  
Other possible status values are Idle and In Service.  Some servicing 
time is unavoidable, but no plane should ever be idle.  If one is, give it a 
route to fly straight away - or investigate any possible problems it may 
have.

You can also check the status of all of your aircraft by selecting the List 
command.  Each plane you have is shown, along with its type, speed, 
passenger capacity, range and status. Click on any of these planes to see 
complete information on the plane. If you own more planes then can fit 
on the screen at once, use More to see the next screen’s worth of planes.



Buying a New Plane 

Unless you want to be the world’s smallest airline, you will want to use 
the Buy command, sooner rather than later.  Selecting it will show you a 
blueprint and technical information on one type of plane.  Click on Next 
and Previous to move through the available planes.  Initially, only two 
models are available, the DC-3 and DC-4.  As time passes, new planes 
will come onto the market.  They are announced at the start of the year 
in which they are launched. Select Buy to actually purchase the current 
plane.


Evaluating New Planes 

The technical statistics of each plane - speed, capacity and range - are 
very important.  Fast planes are more attractive to passengers, and 
complete more flights in a given time.  Planes that carry more, 
obviously allow you more potential profit - but also incur higher costs.

Range determines what routes the craft will be able to travel.  You can 
compare range to the distances between airports within the Buy screen, 
using the Distance option.  When selected, the world map appears with 
all airports highlighted.  Click on any site to get the distance from it to 
Miami.  Choose Select to make the currently selected airport the base 
from which distances to others are measured.  Then, click on any other 
city to see how far it is from this new base.  As usual, you can also 
select different airports by using Next and Previous.


Fitting and Refitting a Plane 

When you buy your new aircraft, you must decide how much of its 
carrying capacity you want to dedicate to 1st class seating, 2nd class, 
and cargo space.  Your choices here are important, as they will affect 
your profits for that plane.  Use the various options displayed on the top 
menu-bar, or the arrows on the small panel near the plan of the plane, to 
increase and decrease the three categories.  Select Ok when you are 
happy with the arrangement.  

If you later decide to change the seating plan for a plane, you can refit it 
by choosing Refit from the Planes menu.  The commands here are the 
same as when fitting the plane for the first time.  However, remember 
that there is a small charge for this service, and your plane will be taken 
off its scheduled route until the work is completed.


Selling a Plane 

If you need to, you can also sell planes back to raise money.  If you 
choose the Sell command from the Planes menu, you will be told what 
your plane is worth.  You can then confirm or cancel the sale.

In-Flight Services 

As an airline, you have the option of offering a cheap yet cheerful 
service, or more costly, luxury flights.  When the game begins, your 
aircraft are outfitted with the minimum comforts necessary for 
acceptable service.  You can then update the fleet with extra facilities 
by selecting Comfort from the Planes menu.  Then simply select 
whichever luxury items you wish to provide - you can provide more 
than one.  All planes in your fleet will provide the same services.  
Consumers’ choice of a preferred airline is affected by the level of 
comfort provided.


Maintenance 

Each of your planes will need to go into service for one month in each 
year.  Additionally, each plane may break down from time to time, 
requiring extra service.  The more you spend on preventative 
maintenance, the less breakdowns you should get.  Other factors that 
affect the frequency of mechanical failures are the difficulty level set 
for your airline, and the age of your planes.

The Maintenance command under the Planes menu lets you choose the 
level of maintenance you want to give to your fleet.  Remember that out 
of commission aircraft cost you lost revenue as well as maintenance 
charges.

Use the Reliability option to set a level of maintenance for your planes. 
Select High, Medium, or Low to set to a preset number, or use Increase 
and Decrease to choose a percentage.  The higher the percentage, the 
more your maintenance costs, but the more reliable your planes will be. 


Attracting Passengers

The number of people who choose to fly with you depend on a number 
of factors: airport size is a key one.  The number of people who want to 
go from small city to small city is far less than those who will fly large 
to large.  First-class passengers, particularly, prefer direct, large city to 
large city travel.  However, remember that some small cities are 
essential refueling points for longer routes to large cities.  Such small 
cities will be more popular than others, once such a route is up and 
running.

Ticket prices are obviously a crucial selling point - not only should they 
be cheap, but they should offer more value to the consumer than the 
competition. People will cough up high prices more willingly if you 
have a high comfort level and fast, new planes.  Marketing, reliability 
and staff morale also affect demand for your airline.


Attracting Cargo Jobs

Cargo availability works differently from the passenger business.  From 
time to time, specific cargo pick-up jobs will appear at each airport.  If 
no such job is present, no cargo will be carried.  Jobs can be quite large, 
so if a consignment is available for pick-up, you could well fill the 
cargo holds.  This means that, although cargo income is a bit more 
variable than passenger fares, it can still end up a lucrative service to 
offer - especially if you are the only airline to carry cargo on a 
particular route.

The Jobs Available command under the Cargo menu gives you a list of 
cargo loads waiting for a carrier right now.  The Demand Report shows 
you a world map with areas which are tending to produce lots of jobs at 
the moment highlighted in black (high demand) or red (very high 
demand).


Finance and Economics

Very probably, the time will come when your own resources are 
inadequate for your needs.  In that case, in order to fulfill your mad 
dreams of world domination, you will need to first come crawling to the 
bank manager, or worse - sell some of your corporation.

Meanwhile, while your plans begin to take hold, you can use several 
informative charts and graphs to help you measure your progress, 
relative to your opponents.


Bank Loans 

Selecting the Loan command under the Bank menu displays your 
current borrowings, and the maximum the bank is prepared to lend you 
in total.  When the game begins, you will not have borrowed any 
money, but if you have run out of money once during the game, the 
bank manager will give you an emergency loan.  The interest rate you 
will have to pay out on your loan is there also.  Bear in mind that this 
rate can change, and you might end up paying out more than you 
expected.

The number of years over which the repayments are to be spread is also 
shown.  The longer you want to take to repay the bank, the more 
interest you will end up paying by the end of the term.  Repayments are 
exacted at the end of each game year.  Select Add and Subtract to alter 
the size of your loan by $10,000, and Increase / Decrease to change the 
term of the repayments.

If you are comfortably wealthy, and wish to pay off the loan entirely, 
just decrease the term of the loan until you are set to pay it all out at 
once.

The Bank Menu

Balances- The bank manager maintains two accounts for you- Checking 
and Savings. The savings Account accrues interest based on the current 
interest rate, and is the best place to store your excess funds. Use the 
plus and minus keys to change the Amount Transferred, then press OK 
to accept the transfer. You can transfer money between the accounts in 
$100,000 increments.

Register - This check register keeps track of all deposits and 
withdrawals to your account; here you can find exactly where your 
money is going to and coming from, and when these transactions occur.  
The last sixty transactions are always available for review.

An Overview of the Stock Market - Here, in brief, is an 
example/explanation of how the stock market works.  You begin your 
company with 100 shares.  Let’s say that right now your company is 
worth $100,000 dollars.  Each of your current shares is worth $1,000 - 
and so will any other shares created at that time.  So, if you sell 20 
additional shares, they will sell for $1,000 each, and your company will 
receive $20,000 for them.  Now your company is worth $120,000, and 
there are 120 shares, and so each stock is still worth $1,000.  And you 
have $20,000 in new cash to spend on new sites and planes, increased 
advertising etc..  However, you have to pay dividends to each person 
who owns shares, and if you sell too many (more than you own), you 
lose control of your own business.


Buying and Selling Shares (Stocks Screen) 

There are two screens: the Buy screen and the Sell screen.  You start 
out on the Sell screen.  Select S or B to choose which one to display.

On the Sell screen, there is a grid representing each company’s stocks, 
divided by its owner.  The names on the left represent the stock owners; 
the names across the top show which stocks are owned.  Each company 
starts with 100 shares owned in their own company.  (In reality you, the 
owner, own these shares in your airline - companies are not allowed to 
own all the stock in themselves.)

To sell shares, use the mouse or cursor keys to move the asterisks to 
one of the kinds of stocks you own.  Then type A or click on Action to 
make a sale; type in the number of shares to sell and press ENTER, and 
answer Yes to confirm the sale.

Selling stocks owned by another company puts them out on the market.  
Selling your own stocks actually creates new shares, and puts them on 
the market for people (and other airlines) to purchase.  Putting them on 
the market gives you additional revenue from the money paid by the 
new owners of the stock; however, dividends are paid out to 
shareholders, and are a drain on your bank balance.

If none of the other airlines buy your stocks, they will be purchased by 
other buyers in the stock market - and will be available for purchase 
back by you (or the other airlines) at a later date, should you so wish.

Also, remember that if you sell new shares such that you no longer own 
fifty percent or more of the total shares, you lose control of your 
company. This is not the same thing as selling fifty or more of your 
shares, because in selling them you actually create new ones, and the 1-
to-1 proportion of shares to percentage points no longer exists. 

To Buy a stock from (of all things) the Buy screen, select one of the 
four share listings at the top of the now-empty grid.  A listing of "0" 
means that there are no shares of that stock currently on the market.  
Select Action while on a stock that is available, type in the number 
desired, and press ENTER.  You will be asked to confirm.  Buying back 
shares will allow you to regain controlling interest of your company, or 
at least cease paying dividends to outside shareholders.  Additionally, 
buying shares is a good way to gain controlling interest in another 
company; you will receive dividends from the shares you own.
  If the other airline does well, you will gain - and the end-of-year 
messages will recognize your achievement.  You, of course, will have 
the satisfaction of knowing that, as owner, it is you who are the real 
winner!

 


Going Bust

All airlines, human or computer controlled, can fail if they are 
mismanaged, or squeezed sufficiently by their competitors.  When a 
company runs out of money, it will get a warning from the bank, and an 
emergency loan to keep it afloat. If the bank balance reaches zero again 
within a certain time, there will be a more severe warning.  After that, 
the bank will foreclose, and the airline will be forced to shut down.  
There is no Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection here - the harsh reality 
is that without cash, you will not survive!


Financial Reports

There are three financial reports that you can use to see exactly where 
you are making and losing money.  They each feature a list of all of 
your planes, identified by flight number and type.  Each plane then has 
figures each telling you how some aspect of its business is doing. 

All reports in the game can be printed. Just click the Print command, or 
press the "R" key to send the report to the printer. You can skip pages 
either forward or backward in a report by using the Prev and Next 
commands.


Plane Income 

This is the most general report of a plane’s success.  Next to the plane 
type, you see the speed of the plane and the percentages of its space 
dedicated to 1st, 2nd and cargo class of travel.

Finally, the three crucial numbers appear.  The first tells you how much 
the plane is making in fares revenue.  The second says what it is costing 
you to run the plane - remember that Profit equals Revenue - Cost.  
Finally, you are told how full your plane is at the moment.  If there is an 
asterisk next to a plane, that means that the plane is not turning a profit, 
and must be dealt with to improve its standing.



Cargo Income 

This report gives you a detailed breakdown of how the cargo side of the 
business is going.  For each plane you have, you are told its cargo 
capacity both in terms of cargo units (each the size of a passenger seat) 
and as a percentage of this plane’s total capacity.  Then you are shown 
the income that would be received from cargo if the plane flew at full 
cargo capacity on all legs of its route, and the costs incurred.

The volume figure is a guideline for how much cargo is generally 
available for transport on this route.  Of course, the actual amount of 
cargo available fluctuates; this represents a likely maximum in cargo 
units.  So, if the plane’s capacity in those units is of comparable size, 
you will often be flying with empty holds.


Service Income 

This report tells you how much of your money is coming from first-
class passengers, economy travelers or cargo.  After the flight number 
and plane type, the income generated by each class is printed in turn.


The Profit and Loss Report

To get an overall picture of how well your airline is doing, select the 
Bottom Line command on the Finances menu.  You will see a 
breakdown of all of the sources of cash for your company, and all of its 
expenses, followed by the balance. 

The categories of income are:  plane fares, money from selling planes, 
loans taken out, and cash from selling shares.  Outgoing categories are: 
general (fuel and staff, and advertising)  costs, landing rights purchased, 
planes bought, maintenance costs, interest repayments, taxes, and 
dividends to investors.

Please note that this is very much a cash-based game which is why this 
cash-flow system is used rather than a true, accounting-style profit and 
loss report. You will make a nominal loss when you buy planes, 
therefore, even though you still have the planes to use next year and the 
years after that.

Note that it is common for fast-growing companies to spend more cash 
than they earn - they simply need to ensure a healthy supply of new 
cash, from issue of loan or stock.  Be aware that many profitable 
companies go bust by not having enough cash to pay for their growth. 
Be aware also that taxes are applied to any profits you make at a rate of 
35 % a year.

Set your employee wages through the Wages command. Low wages 
may cause a decline in morale, and may even cause your employees to 
strike.

Advertising can improve your sales. Use the Advertising command to 
adjust your advertising policy. Ad Spend to Date tells you how much 
you have invested in advertising, and Turnover tells you your total fares 
for the year. Use Alter Ad Spend to change the annual advertising 
budget.

You may also take advantage of the Slogan feature. Select this, and 
enter a one-line slogan. Slogans will pop up in the game from time to 
time, but the choice of slogan does not affect gameplay.

If you are losing money, the Market Research Report is a good way to 
find out why. This option brings up a commissioned report giving five 
brief reviews. But this helpful information does not come cheap. The 
charge is $20,000 at the start of the game, and will rise over time.

Financial Graphs

There are four graphs that you can refer to for more information on 
your company’s success.  They are also found under the Finances menu.  
In each, the fortunes of all four airlines are shown side by side.  Above 
each chart, the maximum relevant value or figure of the most successful 
of the four airlines is shown to give an idea of scale.

Select Monthly Income for a chart which plots each airline’s income 
per month over the last year.  The Yearly Income command gives the 
annual equivalent.  Valuation refers to the changing overall value of 
each company over time.  Finally, Fleet Size will show you how many 
planes each airline has in relation to the others.





Special Events: Trouble on the Horizon

There are a number of events that will occur from time to time in the 
game.  Some of these will affect your airline, as well as others, in 
different ways.


Fuel Prices 

Fuel prices fluctuate over time, and when they do, a screen will appear 
to notify you of the change.  When fuel prices rise, the cost of running 
all planes will go up. You may need to up your fares. On the other hand, 
fuel prices may drop, and lowering your fares might be in order.


Strikes 

Staff will occasionally strike at individual airports.  This means that 
planes will get NO passengers or cargo from that airport if they use it.  
However, this will not affect the flow of income from any other stages 
of the route.  The picketing will usually continue until the end of the 
month.


Bad Weather 

This forces the closure of the local airport, and has the same effect as a 
strike.






KEYBOARD COMMANDS

In Air Bucks, nearly every accessible keyboard command is displayed 
on screen; to use a certain command or open a particular menu with the 
keyboard, just type the letter highlighted in that command, as it appears 
on screen.  To close a menu or panel, press the spacebar.

Ticket Price Grid - When creating or changing ticket prices, use the 
cursor keys to move around the grid of prices.  The highlighted price is 
the one currently selected.  All other commands are displayed on the 
screen.  Additionally, prices are entered using the numbers on the 
keyboard or the numeric keypad.  You will still be able to select prices 
with the mouse.

TUTORIAL

Anxious to make your first million?  We understand.  That’s why we’ve 
worked out this brief tutorial for you.  By the time you’re done with it, 
you’ll have your first major landing site, your first route to travel and 
your first plane in the air.  But most importantly, you’ll start the money 
rolling in!

In Air Bucks, the two things you need are planes to fly and places to 
send them.  You start with only one plane - a Dakota DC-3, flight 
number AB0.  It’ll get you started.

However, you only have permission to land at one airport - Miami.  
Unless you get rights to another airport, you’re looking at a pretty short 
trip.  So, use the menu bar across the top of the screen to select the 
Routes menu.

Selecting from Menus:  You always select menus and commands by 
moving the mouse pointer onto them and clicking the left mouse button, 
or by typing their first letter on the keyboard.

Having clicked on Routes or typed R, you get a list of commands. 
Select Negotiate New Site in the same way.

All the red dots that appear on the map are airports that you can buy 
rights to.  New York is a good bet to start with.

You should select New York - but it’s awfully close to a few other 
cities.  Click on the Zoom option to enter Zoom mode.  You’ll see a 
close-up view of the world, with cities marked as runways.  The icons 
in the top-right corner of the screen let you scroll over the world map.  
Look for the northeast part of the United States, and click on one of the 
large cities you find there.  The name of the city appears when you 
select it; you may need to try more than one city before you find New 
York.

Selecting Airports: Specify an airport by clicking directly on it with the 
mouse.  Alternatively, use the Next and Previous commands to step 
through the whole list.

If you can’t get New York, or want to choose another city, any airport 
within 1,000 miles of you will do.  1,000 miles is the maximum distance 
your DC-3 can fly.  The distance from a site to your nearest airport (in 
this case, your only airport) is displayed on the screen for you.

Having chosen an airport, select the Acquire command at the top of the 
screen, and confirm by selecting Yes.  You’ll find that you’re still in 
Zoom mode.

It’ll take a while for your landing rights to come through, so you’ll have 
to wait.  Game time only passes when no menus are up, so get out of 
Negotiate and the Routes menu.

Quitting a Menu:  To jump out of a menu, hit the space bar or click 
completely outside of the selection area.

Use the scroll icons, if you want, to look around at the world.  It’s quiet 
right now, but in a year or so your planes will fill the skies.  Game time 
moves more slowly while in Zoom mode, so you’ll probably want to 
return to the World Map.  Click on the world icon in the center of the 
scrolling icons to do so.  After a while, the date on the bottom left of the 
screen should change from OCT 1946 to NOV 1946, and you will be 
told that you have landing rights at New York.  (Other airline’s first 
acquisitions are shown as well.)

Creating a Route:  Your plane is now allowed to go to New York, 
although it won’t until you tell it to.  So, the next thing to do is give 
Plane AB0 a new route.  Select the Routes menu again.  When that 
appears, choose the Alter Route command, and after that the Make 
option.

Click on the figure 1 in the center section of the screen, or type 1.  You 
are saying where the first stop on your plane’s route is to be.  Miami is 
fine, so just select Ok or hit the space bar, and it should go into slot 1.

Now select slot 2 and select New York on the map (just click on the 
city).  Confirm again with Ok or the space bar.  You should now have 
Miami and New York as the stops on your route.  Ok or the space bar 
will confirm the whole choice.

The Ticket Price screen will automatically appear for you to enter a 
pricing structure.  This screen shows the prices you are going to charge 
for each class of travel on each leg of your trip. 

Changing Prices:  To say which price you want to change, either click 
on the figure itself in the table, or move around the pricing grid with the 
cursor keys.  To actually change the number, just type it again.  To 
make mass changes to all the prices on the route, use the Up and Lower 
commands.  To change the percentage difference it changes by, use the 
Inc and Dec commands.

Instead of telling you what prices to use, we recommend you use the 
Check Plane Income command to see how your pricing structure is 
expected to perform.  If you’re not making money on a particular class, 
try lowering its price (Note:  since you have no First class seating on 
your plane, there will be no First class income listed regardless of the 
price you set).  Remember that First Class should always cost more than 
Economy, and Economy should always cost more than Cargo.

When you are happy with your prices, use Ok or the space bar to 
continue.  You need to select the Assign command to leave the routes 
screen (remember, you are still inside the Alter Routes command).  Exit 
the Routes menu to unpause the game.

After a few seconds’ delay, your plane status should change from Idle 
to Miami or New York, and the cash should start rolling in.  Click on 
the zoom icon on the right end of the icon panel (located at the bottom 
of the screen), then click on the Eastern United States with the 
magnifying glass.  You should see your first DC-3 as it flies between 
the two sites.  You’re on your way!

STRATEGY GUIDE - OVERVIEW

This is your guide to mastering Air Bucks Version 1.2.  This isn’t a 
"cheat sheet" - no game secrets will be given away here.  Instead, by 
reading this you’ll gain an insight into how an airline flight is simulated 
by the game.  The chapters in this guide will try to answer the following 
questions:

 	What goals should I work towards to win the game?
 	What factors are taken into account when calculating demand, 
and how do they affect it?
 	What are good strategies for planning my routes?
 	What are good strategies for working the Cargo trade?
 	What are the actual advantages and disadvantages to each type 
of plane?
 	How is cost per flight calculated?

This section is intended as a supplement to the instructions given in the 
manual.  To learn how to play the game, one should look to the manual 
or the tutorial. 


AIR BUCKS - HOW THE MODEL WORKS

The economic model programmed into Air Bucks takes into account a 
multitude of factors and statistics.  The airline executive who believes 
that he can make a cool million just by keeping his prices competitive, 
may soon find himself up to his ears in bank loans, and paying his 
meager profits out as stock dividends.  The businessman who keeps a 
firm grip on all facets of his company is the one who could make 
incredible profits.

In economics, demand is a relationship between price and the quantity 
demanded of a product. In Air Bucks, demand is the measure of how 
many people will buy a ticket to fly on one of your planes.  It is 
measured as a percentage, and is calculated using a wide range of 
factors described in detail below.  One goal in playing Air Bucks is to 
maximize demand for your planes - to fill your planes as much as 
possible, at the highest possible price. This would then maximize the 
income for that flight. Controlling demand is crucial to earning money 
- the amount you earn per flight is the percentage of demand times the 
price per seat times the number of seats in the plane.

Unfortunately, some of that money earned must be spent to cover costs. 
In Air Bucks there are two types of costs: flight costs (which are 
incurred for every flight that you run) and overhead costs (which are 
charged annually or monthly, and are not directly related to the quantity 
of flights that your airline flies).

The largest factors used to determine the costs per flight are the 
distance and the fuel cost at the start of each flight. The resulting cost is 
then increased for any additional Comfort factors you have selected, 
and adjusted for the size of airplane flying the route: not only are larger 
planes less fuel efficient, but they also use more fuel for taking off and 
landing. This is the reason why modern airlines use much smaller 
airplanes for the very short flights; a large jet would use more fuel to 
take off and land than to actually travel!

Other costs per flight (such as maintenance fees, staff and landing fees) 
are deducted annually: you must be prepared for a large deduction from 
your bank balance at the end of each year!! Overhead costs (head 
office, advertising, bank interest and so on) are deducted either annually 
or monthly.

You should also be aware that Air Bucks will support up to 400 planes 
- regardless of who owns them. Your corporation could in theory own 
and run all 400, or none.

For your information, demand is not calculated just by city, as many 
users have thought; demand for a route (or leg of a route) is calculated 
every time that an aircraft takes off; all the planes in Air Bucks actually 
"fly" their routes - the model does not simply work out how many 
flights the planes could fly each month, and multiply through. This 
means that the latest possible information is used to calculate demand 
every single trip. This is also the reason why the computer slows down 
as the fleet size grows - it is working much harder!

We have had several technical support users suggesting that the 
computer players had some sort of advantage: we state categorically 
that this is not the case. The computer players have no more 
information than you, and certain rare occasions where the computer 
had a slight advantage in reaction time have been corrected with 
Version 1.2.  However, the computer uses all of the information 
available to it, which a new human player may still be learning to do.


AIR BUCKS - YOUR AIM

Your basic goal is to maximize profit, preferably by putting a passenger 
in every seat and filling the holds with as much cargo as possible, while 
charging as high a price for both cargo and passengers as you can!

While it is possible to fill every plane, surprisingly, you may well not 
want to do this. You might well need to drop prices so low in order to 
fill the plane, that you make less money than charging a higher price 
and having fewer passengers! Or, you may find that you are spending 
too much money to create this demand, and your revenue from fares is 
being swallowed whole by excessive costs.

This is really where much of the fun of Air Bucks comes in - you can 
decide whether you wish to try a cheaper price with less luxuries 
strategy, or go for the best in quality, the highest prices - and fewer 
passengers. Air Bucks  allows for either of those extremes, and also 
many strategies somewhere in-between, to work well. You are in charge 
- what do you want to do?

To help you carry out your chosen strategy, Air Bucks allows you to 
adjust many different factors - all of which have an effect on both cost 
and demand. Due to the complexity of Air Bucks’ economic model, and 
the nature of some of the factors, it is not possible to give precise 
rankings for all of Air Bucks’ many options. There really are no set 
solutions to the game!  Besides, if you knew exactly how the game 
worked, you would lose the fun of trying to perfect your business 
strategies!

What follows is, therefore, a guideline which describes each factor in 
more depth - and that hints at how you might like to use it.

With these tips in hand, we encourage you to continue to experiment 
with the game.  There are several ways to achieve success, using 
different policies.  In fact, there are several different ways to achieve 
full demand - so in theory, it is possible to achieve greater than 100% 
- though, as in real-life, the numbers are adjusted for this, and you will 
not be able to fill your plane past capacity.  You must try to find the 
most efficient strategy to increase demand, always being careful that 
your techniques do not cost so much that they deny you a chance at 
turning a profit.







RELATIVE RANKING OF FACTORS AFFECTING DEMAND

Most Important	Important	Special Circumstances

Ticket Price		Age of Planes	First Class Travel	
Plane Speed		Competition	Cargo
Quality of Sites	Wages		Comfort Level
Strange Pricing	Advertising
Reliability
Plane Size
Size of Route Network




DESCRIPTIONS

Ticket Price - This is the single most important factor.  When properly 
chosen, ticket price has the power to increase demand dramatically; 
when mismanaged, it can drive all customers off your planes.  The 
customers decide what a good price is, based on the cost of the trip.  
Finding the best ratio of ticket price to cost is a challenge; obviously, 
many people will fly with you if you charge only $1.00 per passenger, 
but you won’t be making any profits from them.  You must find the 
right balance between offering good value for the customer, and 
charging enough to cover costs (plus a profit).

Note:  You cannot fill your planes to capacity just by charging rock-
bottom prices.  Even though a good ticket price is crucial to your 
success, charging rock-bottom fares to fill your planes would hardly be 
profitable.  You must remember the many other things you can do to 
increase demand.

Plane Speed - As the game progresses, faster and more modern planes 
enter the market.  The speed of a plane in Air Bucks can fill up to a 
tenth of a flight; customers naturally prefer to ride the newest planes, as 
these usually provide the best in passenger comfort and safety.  And 
more importantly, the fast planes get their passengers to their 
destinations more quickly.  This effect on demand increases as the older 
planes become older, and the newest models look progressively better 
when compared to them.

Quality of Sites - In Air Bucks, all of the things that make one city 
preferable over another are represented by one statistic: size.  Size is an 
important factor in affecting demand; large cities will have more 
customers living in them, and more reasons for people to want to fly to 
them.  Therefore, a direct flight from large city to large city is the best 
route to fly, and flights between small cities are the worst.

There is one exception to this - if a small or medium size site acts as a 
stepping-stone between large cities on a route, then demand will be 
higher.
Again, good prices and choice routes are the major components of a 
successful air service, but they are not the only ones.  You won’t fill a 
plane by changing only these two factors.
 
Strange Pricing - This may be just a game to you, but to your 
customers, air travel is very serious business.  So, if you start making 
screwball pricing decisions (like charging less for first class than for 
cargo), your business will drop severely.  Passengers like stability.  
Silliness has no place in the service industry.

Age of Your Planes - Here, age does not mean how many years you 
have owned a particular plane; rather, it means how long that particular 
design of plane has been out on the market.  As it ages and is surpassed 
by the latest models, a particular model of plane will start to look less 
desirable to the customer.  Specifically, demand on that plane type 
begins to decrease after seven years on the market, and will continue to 
slowly but steadily decrease every year after that.  This is different from 
plane speed, which increases the demand for a particular plane design 
because of its benefits; Plane age decreases the demand for a design 
because of its detriments.

Competition - There is a limit to the number of passengers that want 
to fly any particular route - and hence, also to the number of planes 
that can profitably fly on a route.  That limit is not defined as a fixed 
number (it grows over time), but if you too many planes fly a given 
route, demand will begin to drop.  Thus, you will need to seek many 
routes to fly on, and not just overfly the few you have.  Just as in real 
life, you must use your judgment as to when to fly new routes, and 
when to add planes to existing routes.

Wages - If you don’t give your staff the wages they deserve, their 
treatment of customers will diminish, taking the demand for your planes 
down with it.  It is important to always raise wages after strong profits, 
as your employees use your success as a guide for how much money 
they deserve.  Nowhere is this more noticeable than after a particularly 
successful year; if you don’t reward your staff, expect to see a sharp dip 
in demand come January.  On the other hand, employees can only 
increase their efficiency so much before increased wages start to have 
diminishing returns.

Advertising - Advertising works similarly to Wages, in that too little 
advertising will decrease demand, but too much advertising might not 
be worth the expense.  Again, some managerial judgment is in order. Be 
aware, too, that the effectiveness of advertising is linked to the size of 
your company - people expect a larger airline to advertise more, so 
you will need to increase your ad spend as your revenues grow.

Reliability - If you keep your plane maintenance level low, then your 
planes will be constantly breaking down, creating the image of a 
"dangerous" company.  As a result, some customers will shy away from 
your services.  The money you save in maintenance fees may not equal 
the ticket fares lost as a result.

Plane Size (Short Journeys for Large Planes) - Planes designed to fly 
extremely long distances become inefficient when faced with relatively 
short routes.  When this occurs, the cost of running that route doubles, 
as compared to when using a more appropriate plane.  This does not 
effect demand, but profitability will plummet.

Size of Route Network - Because customers do not like having to 
transfer airlines when flying complicated routes, and because they like 
to stick with one airline where possible, your demand will grow with 
your route network. This means that the demand for each flight will be 
higher for an airline with more active routes (if all other factors such as 
price, age of plane, advertising etc. were the same) than for a smaller 
airline.

First Class Travel - Just as in real life, the market for first-class seats 
is located mainly in the larger cities.  Demand for a plane flying to and 
from large cities will increase if first-class seating is available.  On a 
plane flying only between small or medium cities, first-class will have 
more empty seats.  (The wealthy people in small cities probably have 
their own planes!)

Cargo - If a plane has cargo space allotted, it will automatically be 
filled when a city on its route has a cargo job waiting to go.  Cargo jobs 
appear from time to time, and can be monitored using the Jobs 
Available and Demand Report commands on the Cargo menu.  Cargo 
availability is variable from site to site; sometimes, cargo space on a 
plane will go unfilled, and potential passenger profit may be lost.  On 
the other hand, when cargo is there, the money is good and cargo is 
more forgiving of an older, slower plane.  You might prefer to set up a 
cargo-only plane instead; see the tips in the section on Route Strategies.

Comfort Level - The eight options available from the Comfort 
command let you charge more for the same distance flown, and thus 
increase your profits.  The eight options have different levels of effect, 
which are up to you to discover.  Note that they also increase the cost of 
your flights.
ROUTE STRATEGIES

Obviously, where you decide to send your planes is very important to 
your success; it has a tremendous effect on demand, and can affect your 
long-term profitability, when competing with three other globe-
spanning services.  Here are a few general tips that will help in deciding 
what kind of route network to create.  Note that the following 
information pertains primarily to passenger planes - routing for cargo 
and cargo-only planes are covered in the next section.

In general, the name of the game is to create a web of routes connecting 
cities all around the world.  

The temptation after reading the factor descriptions above is to only fly 
between large cities.  However, there are two major reasons not to 
completely ignore the smaller sites.  First, in the first decade or so of 
game time, some large cities are beyond the reach of your airlines, 
without the benefit of stopping over en route.  Therefore, the small and 
medium cities in the middle of oceans and large continents are vital for 
connecting flights between the more profitable locations.  As you 
upgrade your fleet to the latest models, these small locations will lose 
their significance in your network.

Second, even when you have jumbo-jets connecting the most distant 
points on the globe, and fly to every large city on the map, there is still 
more profit to be had.  Travel still occurs between these smaller 
locations, and the money-seeking executive will find that a carefully-
run service to and from these locations can add a nice pile of cash to 
your bank account.  Also, shorter routes between less-important cities 
are a good place to deploy older planes, as they become too outdated 
for the big business.  If those aren’t enough reasons to explore this 
avenue, consider that your opponents will be doing so.
CARGO STRATEGIES

Working the cargo market with passenger planes is largely a hands-off 
affair.  Your planes fly from airport to airport as you have directed, and 
if there is cargo waiting at an airport, and your ticket price is 
competitive, your plane will automatically load up and collect the 
earnings.  If there is more cargo waiting than your plane can carry, it 
will remain there until the plane returns to that part of its route.

In thinking about the cargo market, you should look at the Demand 
Report map under the Cargo menu.  Here, sites with high or very high 
demand for cargo carriers are indicated by the colors black and red, 
respectively.  If you have a route flying through an area or areas with 
greater demand, you may want to increase the cargo capacity of the 
planes assigned to it.  On the other hand, if none of the cities on a route 
appear on the Demand Report map, you may want to replace cargo 
areas on that route’s planes with passenger seating.  However, always 
keep in mind that demand for cargo changes throughout the game; if 
you follow the advice above, you may find yourself refitting or 
rerouting planes repeatedly to better exploit cargo opportunities.

Another important place to look at is the Cargo Income chart under the 
Finances Menu.  There, the two important figures are capacity and 
volume.  The capacity of a plane measures, both in units and as a 
percentage, how much cargo it can carry on a flight; volume represents 
how many units of cargo are generally available on that route.  If the 
volume of cargo produced by a route is sufficiently greater than the 
capacity of the plane flying on it, that plane will have to complete its 
route many times to completely ship the cargo.  This is an ideal 
situation, as the plane will then garner a fairly steady cargo income 
from the route.  However, this effect can be diluted if more than one 
plane flies on the route; and cargo appears at intervals, so there will still 
be "dry" periods for these planes.

You still have to be careful to set competitive prices for cargo; in fact, 
cargo uses the same formulas (for the most part) as in calculating 
demand for passengers, replacing one person with one crate of cargo.  
Additionally, if you set "silly" prices for cargo (like making it more 
expensive than economy seating), the world will notice and avoid your 
service.  And if a plane fills less than one quarter of its seats, it is 
ineligible to pick up cargo.

Cargo-only Planes

One of the options mentioned in the Air Bucks manual is the creation of 
cargo-only planes.  These planes have no passenger seating, having 
replaced it with storage space.  Flying cargo is a fine purpose for those 
older planes that are incapable of turning a profit as a passenger carrier.  
Turning out cargo planes may be the preferred alternative to selling old 
planes of the fleet.  However, the chartered cargo business requires a lot 
of attention and changing of routes to be successful, so too many of 
them may make the business unmanageable.

The creation of a cargo-only plane is simple.  Simply refit a plane, 
replacing all seats with cargo space.  Then, use the Jobs Available 
command to find a particular location with cargo waiting.  Then, make 
a chartered route, solely for this plane, and make its final destination the 
location you chose.  Keep in mind that if that location is too far away 
from the last city the plane flew to, then the plane’s range will make it 
unable to complete the journey, and your route must include a stopover 
or two.  Making the route chartered means that the plane will sit at its 
destination, once it arrives.

In some cases, the plane’s capacity will be less than the volume of 
cargo available at the site.  In that case, you may want to make the 
plane’s route a scheduled one for a while, preferably between the site 
and another with cargo to pick up.  That way, all of the cargo will 
eventually be picked up.  To look for such cases, look to the Jobs 
Available and Cargo Income commands.

For game purposes, picking up cargo is all that is needed to complete 
the job and collect the income.  Then, you can seek out new locations 
with cargo jobs available, and reroute your plane to them to pick up 
some extra cash.  You may also use the Demand Report or Jobs 
Available commands to decide on stopover points that may prove to be 
profitable in and of themselves.




PLANES IN AIR BUCKS
						
Plane Name	Abbr.	Year		Cost		Range
	Capacity	Speed	
Douglas DC-3	DC-3	1936		10,000		1,000
	21		180
Douglas DC-4	DC-4	1943		160,000	2,500	44	
	215
Douglas DC-6	DC-6 	1947		200,000	3,000	88	
	315
Vickers Viscount	
Viscount		1950		200,000	1,725	75	
	357
Boeing 707		1958		2,000,000	4,000
	135		600
Lockheed Electra	1959		1,000,000	2,770	99	
	405
Douglas DC-8	DC-8	1960		2,000,000	3,500
	127		590
Boeing 720	720	1961		3,500,000	4,000
	127		600
Boeing 727	727	1964		3,500,000	1,700
	94		580
Trident		Trident	1965		3,500,000	2,400
	132		605
BA-111		1966		3,500,000	2,150	109	
	541
Douglas DC-9	DC-9	1967		3,000,000	1,900
	119		564
Hercules		1968		4,500,000	5,500	100	
	355
Boeing 737	737	1969		7,000,000	2,135
	115		570
Boeing 747	747	1970		21,000,000	5,500
	370		589
DC-10		DC-10	1971		21,000,000	7,200
	380		573
Tristar		Tristar	1972		18,000,000	6,000
	280		590
Concorde		1976		80,000,000	4,000
	128		1,350
MD-80		MD-80	1980		80,000,000	2,360
	155		800
Boeing 767	767	1982		100,000,000	4,400
	290		800
Boeing 757	757	1983		90,000,000	4,600
	186		800
BA146		BA146	1984		50,000,000	1,350
	112		477					
		
				
					

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN AIR BUCKS


Q:	I have assigned a plane to a route, and I get urgent messages 
saying that the plane needs a fresh route.  What’s wrong with the route I 
have?

A:	The problem is most likely one of two things.  Either the route 
you assigned to the plane contains a leg longer than the maximum 
distance the plane can fly, OR the plane is currently at a location that is 
not on the route, and is too far away to reach the first stop on the route.

	In the first case, you must change the route to make all 
distances shorter than the range of the plane, or you must replace the 
plane with one with greater range.  In the second case, you must make a 
chartered route to reach that first stop, using short hops across your 
network of routes.



Q:	Why do landing fees explode when I start doing very well?

A:	The more money you have, the more the airport owners think 
you can afford to spend, and thus the more they will charge.



Q:	Every time I see my bank balance go up, it seems that the 
amount earned is different.  Is the economic model random?

A:	No.  Because the computer actually simulates every flight for 
every day of the entire month, the number of flights between each 
balance update may vary.  Additionally, demand is recalculated for 
every flight, and as it accounts for slight variations in customer desires 
with each flight, the demand shifts slightly each time. 



Q:	Why do I lose large amounts of money from time to time, 
without warning?

A:	Fees and outgoing costs are paid out at the end of each month 
and year.  You will probably find that the sudden downturns come at 
the end of the month.  If you are losing too much money to costs, you 
may want to change your strategies to include less frills, or perhaps 
reduce your wages and advertising budgets.  If you go bankrupt in this 
way, you definitely need to rethink your plans.

APPENDIX: COST FACTORS


Cost per flight is calculated as follows:

		(Mileage/Fuel Efficiency) * Fuel Cost 

Fuel Efficiency is measured in miles per barrel, and decreases as planes 
get larger.  Fuel Cost is measured in dollars per barrel.

This is then moderated by several factors: 

   Comfort Factors (any selected by the user will increase the cost)
	   Relative Plane Size (larger planes use more fuel for taking 
off 		and landing)	
	   Note that Maintenance Costs and Landing Fees are both 	
		charged annually, and not per flight.


It is not really practical to provide specific equations or tables:  the 
equations are complicated by the fact that some factors only crop up in 
some circumstances. There is only one table of data - that is for 
inflation, which is based on historical data.
