Airlines (1998)

About this game

Airlines, The Game of Airline Strategy (a.k.a. Airline Operations in the Age of Deregulation) is a game of airline operations and business in the 1990's. Players represent the Chief Operations and Marketing Officers of major American airlines, whose job is to fly the most passengers over a given period of time. There are two basic games in Airlines: the One-Year Quick Game which takes about 45 minutes to play and the Three-Year Game, which takes about two hours to play. The currency of the game is seats, seats are used to pay for everything. The game is card-based, with a small map to show distances between Major and Regional Airports. The cards consist of Major Airports, Regional Airports, various Aircrafts, airline Hubs (your airline), Gates, and varied Opportunity/Events cards. The Ops/Events cards may denote bad weather in a region (thus reducing number of seats for that round), strikes (which can played on another airline), Fuel Price Adjustments (which effect your maintenance fees paid with Seats), and even an Aircraft Incident card (which people outside the industry call "crashes.") Airlines can be combined with the stand-alone game Airlines: United States Set 2.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 2 to 4.
• Rules load. At 2.1/5 this is a mid-weight game — expect a proper rules explanation before you start.
• Age. The publisher suggests 12 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.