_______________________________________________________________________________ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ___ __ _ / | ___ _____ ____ / /_ (_) ____ / /| | / _ \ / ___/ / __ \ / __ \ / / /_ / / ___ |/ __/ / / / /_/ / / /_/ / / / / /_ /_/ |_|\___/ /_/ \____/ /_.___/ /_/ /___/ _____ ____________ __________ _____ ______________________ _______ ___(_)_______ __ ___/_ / / /___ __ \_ _ \__ ___/__ ___/_ __ \__ __ \__ / _ ___/ _(__ ) / /_/ / __ /_/ // __/_ / _(__ ) / /_/ /_ / / /_ / / /__ /____/ \__,_/ _ .___/ \___/ /_/ /____/ \____/ /_/ /_/ /_/ \___/ /_/ _______________________________________________________________________________ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Aerobiz Supersonic FAQ/Walkthrough January 23, 2005 Version 2.3 Written by: Dan Simpson Email: dsimpson.faqs@gmail.com When emailing, use this subject: Aerobiz Supersonic v 2.3 Email Policy: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ If you see any mistakes, or have anything that you want to add please email me! I will, of course, give you full credit for your addition, and be eternally grateful to you. Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most recent version of this FAQ can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Aerobiz Supersonic is a sort of sequel to Aerobiz, except it is more of a remake of the first game than a sequel. They merely added new planes and a couple other features and called it a brand new game. If you are wondering "WHERE CAN I GET THIS GAME?" (and judging from most of my emails about this game, that's what everyone wants to know), I would suggest either Emulation (use a search engine), or buying the game off of an auction site such as eBay. You may also try looking around the Used bin at any local store that sells console games. This game was made for the SNES and also for the Genesis. Anyway, the point of the game is to have the best and most profitable airline by a certain time. You can compete against either 3 computers or 3 players or any combination of those. If you are a webmaster and wish to post this on your web page, please email me first. And if you do post this FAQ on your site, please make an attempt to keep it up to date. There is nothing worse than getting emails from people who saw an old version asking about things that are already in the newer versions. Well, maybe there are worse things, but it IS annoying! This FAQ looks best in Courier New at about 9 points. This Document is Copyright 1999-2005 by Dan Simpson Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ What's New in 2.3: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on Passenger Totals in the Route section. For a complete Version History, check out the Final Words Section at the end of the FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Scenarios 2. The Planes 3. Game Basics 4. Routes 5. Other Ways to get Money 6. Other Strategies Final Words... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. The Scenarios ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are 4 scenarios, each has different jets because each is set in a different time period. Each scenario gives you 20 years to be the best, and each year has 4 quarters. 1. The Dawn of the Jet Age -- 1955 to 1975 2. Air Travel Takes Off -- 1970 to 1990 3. Airlines Cover the Globe -- 1985 to 2005 4. Supersonic Travel -- 2000 to 2020 For a list of which era has which planes, look in the next section "2. The Planes" for the list. After you select your era, you then select a difficulty level, from 1 to 5. One being easy, five being hard. Then you select how many human players will play. If this is your first time with the game, you may want to play on DEMO. You will get to see how the computer strategizes by watching 4 computer players playing against each other! For an easier game, select and play more than 1 human player. This would cut back on actual opponents to compete against. Note: Due to the amount of wars in the middle east in the "Dawn of the Jet Age" scenario, it isn't recommended that you have any dealings in the mid-east in that scenario. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. The Planes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Old planes do go obsolete, so if you don't see all the old planes, that's why. Note: During the era of the Cold War (which is up to 1989) non-russian airlines cannot buy Russian planes (Ilyushin and Tupolev) and Russian airlines cannot buy non-russian planes. Note: When new planes are first introduced, all you get is to see it, they won't start production on that plane until the next year. Note: Prices of planes listed is the Initial price, the prices do decrease over time. Note: If a given plane has a second year listed, then that means that while you are playing a scenario that plane will be taken off the market. Also realize that some planes are only available in certain scenarios, so don't panic if you don't see something even though it should have been available. Plane list is sorted by Builder, then by Years: Name: Builder: Years: Range: Seats: Price: ŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻ Concorde Aerospat. 1976-79 4000 120 110000k A300 Airbus 1975 3620 350 60000k A320 Airbus 1982 4180 180 28000k A300-600 Airbus 1985 5500 370 62000k A310 Airbus 1985 6000 280 47500k A340 Airbus 1993 8870 330 99000k B707-120 Boeing 1958 4180 140 42300k B707-320 Boeing 1960-82 5560 160 45000k B727-100 Boeing 1964-71 2310 110 21600k B727-200 Boeing 1967-84 2620 150 33000k B737-200 Boeing 1968-88 1500 110 24750k B747-200 Boeing 1970 6750 450 134000k B747-300 Boeing 1983 6750 500 112500k B737-300 Boeing 1985 1620 120 34100k B757 Boeing 1985 2930 200 35750k B767 Boeing 1985 4060 230 38500k B747-400 Boeing 1989 7180 550 135000k B777 Boeing 1995 5500 360 54000k IL14 Ilyushin 1954-60 1870 30 8000k IL62 Ilyushin 1965 4930 150 24000k IL62M Ilyushin 1970 5620 160 28800k IL62MK Ilyushin 1978 5500 170 34000k IL86 Ilyushin 1981 2560 350 37800k IL96-300 Ilyushin 1988 6870 300 45000k L1049 Lockheed 1951 4750 90 19800k L1011 Lockheed 1972-84 4500 350 72000k DC6 MDC 1947 4000 80 11200k DC8-30 MDC 1959 5120 140 43200k DC8-50 MDC 1961 6060 150 44550k DC9-30 MDC 1966 1500 120 23400k DC8-60 MDC 1967 5930 240 40800k DC10 MDC 1971 5560 350 67500k MD80 MDC 1981 3560 150 33000k MD11 MDC 1991 7750 360 102000k MD12 MDC 1995 8000 400 120000k MD100 MDC 1998 4680 200 36000k TU104 Tupolev 1955 2500 50 13500k TU124 Tupolev 1962 3500 40 18000k TU134 Tupolev 1967 2310 70 17600k TU154 Tupolev 1972 2430 150 21600k TU144 Tupolev 1977-79 2620 140 81000k TU154B Tupolev 1977 2500 160 25200k TU204 Tupolev 1989 2870 210 26000k Caravelle Sud 1959-72 1500 80 30000k Viscount Vickers 1953 1680 70 20000k Korath sent me the following: First, in the list of planes, depending on your starting home region (though your city choice may not matter), your choice at the start of the game, will affect how much planes will cost you. The prices you have listed are for a company based in Europe (Africa, Australia, S.America, and the Mid-east may also have the same prices, as I did not check prices for companies located in those regions). My test cities were London, Paris, New York, and Tokyo. I choose London and Paris to see if there were differences within region, but they were exactly the same. A Russian city (Moscow for example) may still be different than London, or Paris, but I don't want to check. One note, Boeing prices were the same regardless of region. As an example, starting in the Supersonic age, these are the prices for companies in these cities: London/Paris New York Tokyo A340 99,000 110,000 110,000 B747-400 135,000 135,000 135,000 B777 54,000 54,000 54,000 IL96-300 45,000 45,000 45,000 MD11 102,000 81,600 81,600 MD12 120,000 96,000 96,000 MD100 36,000 28,800 28,800 TU204 26,000 28,600 28,600 So while you shouldn't remove the Price column, it would be recommended to put a big note that these are Europe (and possibly other region) based companies (except when it comes to Boeing). AlbertC79 sent this: The price of planes is determined by one or both of two factors: The number of planes from that particular manufacturer you are holding in your stock, and your company's relations to the country home to said manufacturer. The following lists the aircraft manufacturers and their homebase countries: Manufacturer Homebase --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Boeing United States McDonnell Douglas (MDC) United States Lockheed United States Airbus France (EC)* Sud-Aviation France Aerospatiale France Vickers United Kingdom Ilyushin Soviet Union (Russia/EC)** Tupolev Soviet Union (Russia/EC)** * After 1993 in Scenario 3, and in the beginning of Scenario 4, France is a member of the European Community (EC) and EC will be considered the homebase for Airbus. ** The Soviet Union collapses and becomes Russia in Scenario 3, and in Scenario 4, Russia becomes a member of the European Community (EC). As far as how price is affected via the number of planes on your airline's stock, if your aircraft stock contains more than half of a particular manufacturer's planes, you will get a 10% discount upon ordering more. Here's an example: Your company owns 20 planes. They consist of 6 Boeing B747s, 5 Boeing B737s, 4 Airbus A300s, and 5 MDC DC-10s. The breakdown is 11 planes from Boeing and 9 planes combined from Airbus and MDC. This means more than half your planes in stock are from Boeing, and if you choose to order more planes from Boeing, they will give you a 10% discount! However if you choose to buy 2 more planes from either Airbus, MDC, or another manufacturer, this will shift the balance of planes in your stock, and you will have more than 50% of non-Boeing planes, and if you choose to order more Boeing planes in the future, the 10% discount will no longer apply. A plane's price is also affected by your company's relations to the country that is home to its manufacturer (mentioned above). Your company will get a 10% discount on planes from a manufacturer if you have great relations (green guys handshaking) with its homebase nation. Here's an example: Your company's homebase is in Beijing, and you wish to purchase some Boeing 747-400s. Relations between China and the US (Boeing homebase) are average (orange guys standing apart), so the price Boeing will offer you for a single 747-400 is $150,000K! Pretty pricey, so you'd probably hold off on buying one. However in your next quarter, a representative from the U.S. visits you, and asks you to make a contribution. If you accept, relations between you (China) and the U.S. will improve from average (orange) to great (green)! (Isn't it amazing how a lowly airline can significantly alter the course of global PR! If only the real world worked that way ^_^). Now visit Boeing once more, and you will see the price for a single B747-400 would have fallen from $150,000K to $135,000K! Maybe those annoying representatives aren't as bad as we thought. ^_^ Oh and it gets better! Both these discounts can be compounded! If your company has more than 50% of a certain manufacturer's planes in stock AND you have great relations with the manufacturer's homebase, then you will get a 20% discount from the manufacturer! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Game Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing that you have to do in the game is to select a Region to start from. Logically you want a region away from the computer players. Here is a small breakdown of the Best Regions to start from: Best Starting Cities: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ 1. SE Asia -- Tokyo, Singapore 2. N. America -- New York, Los Angeles 3. Europe -- London, Paris 4. Africa -- Cairo* 5. S. America -- Mexico City Avoid: Mideast and Australia * Cairo has some war troubles, but is still the best city in Africa These are the best because of their size, but more importantly they all have good locations. Never get a starting city in the middle of the Region as you won't be able to do any Long/Medium distance routes, and the ones you will do will be less effective. After choosing all the starting cities, you will be given an option to change the names of the companies (i.e. Metlink, Sunrise, UK AIR, etc.) and their colors. You will then be given your goals by a staff member, and tossed into the scary world of Airline Management! ____________ The Buttons: (from left to right) ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Top - Create New Route, Adjust Routes, Negotiate for Slots, Order/Sell Planes, Budget, Business Ventures Bottom - Create Hub, Advertising, Staff Meeting, Info, Options, End Turn ______ Slots: ŻŻŻŻŻŻ First off, note the numbers under the various cities in your region. Those are slot numbers. The higher the number, the more flights into that city you can do. There are a few things to remember with slots: - They aren't unlimited. Eventually every city will run out of slots at their airport (given enough demand) and it takes time to build new slots. - They aren't free. Slots do cost money, so don't just go around getting slots everywhere you MIGHT need them. In fact, if you don't use all your slots after awhile, you may want to return them! - In determining the Max amount of flights possible, you have to consider how many slots you have in both cities on the flight route, not just the city you are flying to. If you are doing a New York to L.A. and NYC has 2 slots and LA has 8, you can only do 2 flights. - Remember at the most you can be negotiating for new slots in 4 cities. To get new slots, push the STAFF icon (it looks like 2 hands), and send a staff member to a city to negotiate for slots. Depending on relations between your company and this city, your negotiations could take as little as 3 months (one quarter) or 12 months (4 quarters). Remember that you only have 4 staff members! You can, if you want, send 2 staff members on the same job to speed things up. (Although that doesn't always work) _____ Hubs: ŻŻŻŻŻ To expand to other areas of the world, you will need new Hubs. They're like miniature versions of your home base, allowing you to create new routes from them as you would your home base. Hubs can be created at any Green city that you already have slots at. Use the same logic in selecting your hub as you did your home city. (choose large cities, at an edge of the map, like Paris) ________ Tourism: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Every once in awhile you will see various messages like "Olympics will be held in XXXX" or "XXXX is experiencing a boom in tourism. Take advantage of these! They will give you a large bump in traffic. Also pay attention to warnings about wars about to break out and cut off the route before it gets cut off for you. Note: Wars increase the price of oil, which increases your expenses, which lowers your profits. So don't panic if you see a bunch of Red Routes after a war breaks out! _________________ Special "Offers": ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Eventually a country will come up to you and ask you to back their new proposal with some of your hard earned cash. What do you get? Their love. Goodie. It will improve relations with that country's cities, but nothing more dramatic than that. However, this improved relations could mean something quite useful like a decrease in the time needed to negotiate for slots/hubs/etc., and even get you into places you can't normally get. Note: To switch between regions at any time, use the L and R buttons, and use the Y button to select a region on the world map. Note: To speed up text as it is scrolling, hold down one of the ARROW buttons. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Routes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choosing a new route is always a tricky business. Will there be sufficient demand on the route to make it profitable? Will you be able to charge enough to make a GOOD profit? Is there going to be competition on the route? And once you finish the route, how do you tinker with it to make it even better? The maximum amount of routes you can have is 40, so you have to choose wisely where to start a new route. ________________ The Best Routes: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ International Routes -- that is, anything going from one geographic area to another. Like New York to London, or Los Angeles to Tokyo. There is always a great demand for these routes, PLUS the distance means it is economical to use large planes like the 747, which carries a lot of people, which means lots of money. Also you may be able to charge whatever you want here if you get 100% capacities. Note: You can only have one international route into each region, that is, if you do a Tokyo-Paris, you can't do a Tokyo-London, but you could do a Tokyo-New York. Long/Medium Distance Routes -- not quite international, these go from one extreme end of a geographic area to another. Like New York to Miami, or London to Athens. Use a medium sized jet here, but have more flights. You can't charge as much, but the short distance means less expenses. If you have 3 or 4 of these in every region you are in, you will do fine. Korath has more to add on this: International routes are a must. In one game where the company was based in New York, with my above mentioned New York to London/Cairo to Tokyo route, I had an extra route into Sydney, and two (unprofitable) ones going into Mexico, and Tehran. Along with maybe 6-9 medium distance routes in N.America (and 2 in Australia), and maybe around the year 2003/4 of the supersonic scenario, I was pulling in $178,000 in profits from around $300,000 in sales. In contrast I had another company based in London which had International routes into Cairo, another into New York, and then to Mexico. My main routes were Europe in which I had maybe 6-9 medium distance routes. With tinkering, I was pulling in 200,000+ passengers quarterly through Europe, though overall my profits were only one-third of the New York based "International" airline. With about the same number of routes in North America, the routes pulled in maybe 100,000 passengers. My advice: "Look almost immediately into building an international circling route (to the point of focusing soley on slot negotiations, and possibly business ventures). From the start, gradually build supporting routes (one at a time) within your home region, but unless you have a competitor based in the same region, you won't need to worry about establishing a dominating presence (that comes later). "Based on the planes available in the different scenarios, in the very first scenario, you will not have as good a range. In the first scenario, you will need to establish a 4 city route which goes from London to Vancover to Tokyo to New Delhi to London. In the last scenario, you have longer ranged planes available, and thus only require a 3 city route, which connects (recomended) London to New York to Tokyo to London. "Later on, if you want to compete with someone in Oceania (as I have not found any reason not to, except for possible lower potential for profit and passengers), extend down into Sydney (in the earliest scenario you may need to wait for a 5000+ mile ranged plane which would be a DC8-30 (5120 miles) in '59 or a B707-320 (5560 miles) in '61). If you want to compete in S.America, Mexico city is probably the best (and likeliest choice)." Additional Strategy: "With disposible cash, anyone can walk into another companies backyard (aka home region) and take their business. By using similar planes/flights/etc, but with around a 20%-30% lower ticket price than your competitior, you can easily grab the majority of flights after establishing 4-6 routes in about 4-6 quarters (results will vary depending on how established your competitor is). I took down MetLink in N.America in about 6 quarters after establishing my first competing route, when they had a consistant 30,000+ quarterly passengers (and many of their routes had a ticket increase by 50%). I had nothing to really lose, as I wasn't established there except for a hub, and everything to gain, which I did. Unfortunately, in my focusing of North America, MetLink took back South America (which they had held until I established myself there), and UK Air took back Oceania (which like South America, they had held until I established myself there). As I was based in London, I had another competitor in Europe that was based in Moscow (which had only Europe regional flights). About this time they went on an advertising frenzy which significantly reduced my lead in Europe (to the extent that they were close to taking over Europe (which they might've done)). It was all I could do to recover Oceania and South America, while Moscow played Spoiler in Europe. My cash flow dried up, and I wasn't able to maintain it. Looking back, I could've (and should've) gone into Africa which was not established by *anyone* to win the game (I did have Oceania South America and Europe after all, and it wouldn't have taken much especially when I believe I had a Cairo hub ;-) already. As it was, I not only wanted to win, but I wanted one of my #1 regions to be the home region of one of my competitors ;-)" ___________ Bad Routes: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Short Hops -- these are really bad. Avoid making any routes like this! An example is the London to Paris route. Sure it may SOUND good, but even if you get a profit from it, it won't be as much as you would get otherwise on a better route. Although it will get you people, which can get you market share. However, I wouldn't waste my planes on a short route, when there are so many nice Medium Routes to do. ______________________ Tinkering with Routes: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ If your route is at 100% capacity and is raking in the bucks, then you will want to tinker with it to make it even better at making money! - Swap to a larger plane - Add more planes - Buy new slots at both airports and increase the flights - Increase the ticket price by 10% If your route is not 100% and/or is losing money then you need to get it to be profitable. - Swap to a smaller plane - Decrease the amount of planes/flights - Advertise! - Cut prices by 10% Note: A route that is Red is losing money! Often times these Red Routes are temporary, as in times of war, or Oil Embargoes (which raise your costs). Korath has some input on tinkering: In the Tinkering with Routes Section, another suggestion if the route is unprofitable and you have done all you have to try to improve things, suspend the route. It does you no good to continously lose money. Depending on the cost of the route startup, closing it down completly may not be worthwhile (you can always try to resume it later). As an example, I had a company which had a London to Cairo route that had at best a 6% load (even with a single 200 seater plane, 1 flight, and rates down to -50%). My main competitor on the route (which happened to be another company I was managing) has 100% load and had a couple flights and even more than one plane. Prices I believe were increased in the area of 20% or so. This is even when Cairo got a boom in traffic. Another situation which may have affected this reduced load is that (with New York and Tokyo connected on one side, I had a New York to London to Tokyo route open as well as New York to Cairo to Tokyo route. Essentially the only difference was one passed through London, and the other passed through Cairo. I'm thinking that the London-Cairo direct route failed because of that. How to Calculate Passenger Totals (from AlbertC79) ------------------------------------------------- Have you always wondered how the game calculates passenger totals per route? Well I finally figured out the breakdown! Presuming the route has a 100% passenger load, the total number of passengers can be figured out with the following equation: No. of seats * No. of flights per week * 12 weeks = Passenger total The figure "12 weeks" was taken from 12 weeks per quarter (4 weeks per month * 3 months per quarter). Here's a good example using the Tokyo-New York route while playing Scenario 4 (2000-2020). If you are using 3 747-400s (550 seats per plane) flying 5 flights a week, and you have a 100% passenger load, this would be the breakdown: 550 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 33,000 passengers per quarter Sometimes switching to a smaller plane but adding more planes and more flights can help boost passenger loads significantly! Look at the following example. Say you decide to switch over to the smaller MD-12 (400 seats per plane) for this route, but you increase the number of flights per week to 14. This would be the new breakdown: 400 seats * 14 flights per week * 12 weeks = 67,200 passengers per quarter Amazing huh? You've more than doubled your passenger loads using a smaller, cheaper, more economical plane! Now let's say you are running low on homebase slots (because those damn airports can only add so many new slots so often!) and you want to shift slots over from this route, but you don't want to drop your passenger loads, then a good suggestion for the above route is to switch over to a much bigger plane like the B2000-HJ (with a whopping 1000 seats per plane!) and cutting the number of flights a week from 14 to 7. This would be the new breakdown: 1000 seats * 7 flights per week * 12 weeks = 84,000 passengers per quarter Really sweet huh? You've increased your passenger loads yet again, but using less flights! This is a great way to determine what kind of plane to use on a certain route, and how many flights per week to set. I know what you're probably thinking now. "But not all flights have a 100% passenger load, how do you come up with the odd-numbered figures like the game does?" Well I figured that one out too! Just do the same equation but in reverse! Here's an example, let's use a different route this time. We'll use Mexico City-Rio de Janeiro while playing Scenario 3 (1985-2005) for this example. Say you initially open the route using 3 A300-600s (370 seats per plane) flying 5 flights a week. Presuming a 100% passenger load, this is the breakdown: 370 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 22,200 passengers per quarter The flight is set and you let the quarter run through, but you notice that the Mex-Rio route only had 14,768 passengers for that quarter. Note: Anytime you have a passenger figure for a route that does NOT end with a 0, that means that route is NOT at 100% capacity. Normally you would just check the flight to see the passenger capacity, but I bet I could tell you what it is without looking at the game. Here is how you calculate a reverse breakdown to determine passenger loads per plane: No. of passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / No. of flights per weeks / No. of seats = % passenger capacity Note the game doesn't display decimal percentages (like 52.5%) so the figures shown would be rounded up to the nearest whole percentage. Using the equation, plug in the figures from the above example: 14,768 passengers per quarter / 12 weeks / 5 flights per week / 370 seats = 67% capacity With a 67% capacity, you might want to consider either downgrading to a smaller plane like the A310, or decreasing the number of flights. But which is the more feasible option? Using the first equation is a great way to find out. This would be the breakdown if you decide to decrease from 5 flights per week to 3 flights per week with the same plane: 370 seats * 3 flights per week * 12 weeks = 13,320 passengers per quarter This is not a good solution as you will end up losing more passengers this way. Let's try keeping the 5 flights per week but switching to a smaller plane like the A310 (280 seats). Here's the breakdown: 280 seats * 5 flights per week * 12 weeks = 16,800 passengers This will bring your passenger load up from 67% to 88% which is a more decent passenger load, which still leaves some room for increase in case something like a tourism boom or the Olympics should take place. Note: Switching to a smaller more economical plane on a particular route actually may yield further benefits. Using the smaller more economical plane will decrease the costs associated with fuel and maintenance, which can help cut costs and further increase profits! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Other Ways to Get Money ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________ Business Ventures: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ The far right button on the top row is the Business Venture button. You can buy a business anywhere you want. (you don't need to have flown there) The idea is mostly to complement your airline, so you want to buy Hotels, or Bus services. It requires a staff member to buy the Business so make sure you have one before you attempt to buy, and it also takes time. Not all businesses are instantly profitable. To check their profitability, call a staff meeting. Note: The best businesses for you to buy are those which are deep in your territory, and which have several routes connecting to them, or one major route. You can buy a business anywhere on the map, however. ______________________________ Business Ventures and Tourism: (from AlbertC79) ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ On the section of Business Ventures, I noticed that whenever you buy certain leisure businesses (Amusement Parks, Golf Courses, Ski Resorts, and Pleasure Boats) and certain cultural businesses (Museums, Arts Pavilions, and Concert Halls), that particular city's tourist rating actually goes up! The level it goes up depends on the particular business you purchase and the number of said businesses that you purchase. I believe the more expensive the business is, the more it will affect the city's tourist rating. With the city's increased tourist rating, I noticed a SIGNIFICANT increase in passenger traffic on all my flights to and from that city! Here's an example I noticed: In Scenario 4 (2000-2020), I played a game using Tokyo as my homebase. Tokyo's initial tourist rating was 50 when I began the game. As the game progressed, I purchased the Museum in Tokyo (relatively cheap), and within the next quarter, Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to 52! Later I then purchased the Amusement Park (VERY expensive) and by the next quarter, Tokyo's tourist rating had increased to a whopping 72! I also noticed an increase in passenger traffic on my routes! I have ascertained that cultural and leisure businesses increase a city's tourist rating by a fixed amount. Here are the results: Leisure Businesses --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amusement Park - increase tourist rating by 20 Golf Course - increase tourist rating by 12 or 15(?) Ski Resort - increase tourist rating by 10 or 12(?) Pleasure Boat - tourist increase rating by 5 Cultural Businesses --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Concert hall - increase tourist rating by 4 Museum - increase tourist rating by 2 Arts Pavilion - increase tourist rating by 2 I also noticed that the city's economic rating did not change. In the example above, Tokyo's economic rating never changed above or below 76 as a result of purchasing those businesses. I also noticed that purchasing other businesses such as Hotels and Travel Services, and any others not mentioned above will NOT affect your tourist rating. Also your city's tourist rating will NOT change further if you have a successful advertising campaign for it, however passenger traffic to that city will change. It is important to note that even though this benefit will work for any city it is implemented on, not all cities will have the appropriate business ventures to allow for it, but if they do, you should definitely take advantage! ____________ Advertising: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Advertising is directly related to Business Ventures and so is listed down here. You can only advertise when you actually have a Business, because you are advertising the Business, not your airline. However, your airline reaps the rewards of the Advertising. Confused? Anyway, there are 3 categories of Ads, and you can only do the ones that correspond to the Businesses you have. Also if you increase the amount spent on advertising, it increases the likelihood that something will happen! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Other Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bob Hall sent me this neato strategy: "If you base your carrier in North America, there’s no point whatsoever into paying money to the various foreign representatives who show up hat-in-hand. However, if you ever feel like a challenge and use Moscow or Berlin as your headquarters there’s indeed a benefit I’ve spotted. IF (and this is a big if) the folks asking for money are from the United States and you’re Moscow or Berlin (and as the flag shows, that’s East Germany’s Berlin) based, after you see the "relations with the United States have improved" dialog you can buy US-built planes. Even BEFORE Perestroika. I stumbled upon this trying to keep my Moscow-based carrier Jetflot alive in a scenario II game. Since I was actually trying to bankrupt it (so I could start again with some fresh cash) I had no qualms about sending some money to help clean-up the pollution around Dallas airport. But when I went to check out airplane sales instead of the cursor starting on Tupolev, it was on Douglas. Indeed, I could buy anything offered, so I stocked up on Boeing 727-200s in place of economical(ish) but tiny Tupolev TU132s and fuel guzzling TU154s. And that was only the start. "I set up another game with Berlin (also restricted as a Warsaw-pact state in the earlier scenarios) and eventually had the same thing happen, so there are benefits to paying these beggars. A sideline is that those 12 month negotiation periods for slots in New York shortened to six, and when I set up a hub there it was only a three-month wait. A real improvement." =============================================================================== Final Words... =============================================================================== There is a small "Bonus Game" in Aerobiz Supersonic, and it is a "Flag" game. Find the icon that looks like the SNES controller, and press A then SELECT to get into the game. It will show you a flag, then give you 4 options as to which country it belongs to. Simple. -- from GameSages -- http://sages.ign.com/codes/12/8227.html This FAQ was writen entirely using the GWD Text Editor: (shareware) http://www.gwdsoft.com/ ASCII Art created using SigZag by James Dill: (freeware!) http://www.geocities.com/southbeach/marina/4942/sigzag.htm _________________________ Shameless Self Promotion: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ I am Dan Simpson (dsimpson.faqs@gmail.com) and have also written FAQs for: NES: Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom Final Fantasy -- Magic FAQ The Legend of Zelda SNES: Aerobiz Aerobiz Supersonic Utopia: Creation of a Nation Genesis: StarFlight PSX: Thousand Arms -- Walkthrough -- Forging/Dating FAQ PS2: Madden NFL 2001 XBOX: Star Wars: KotOR II: The Sith Lords -- FAQ/Walkthrough -- Influence Guide PC: AD&D Rules FAQ, 2nd and 3rd Editions Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast -- FAQ/Walkthrough NPC List Creature List Baldur's Gate II & Throne of Bhaal -- FAQ/Walkthrough -- Items List -- Class FAQ -- Creature List Civilization III (incomplete) Colonization -- the Single Colony Strategy Guide -- the Cheat Guide Drakan: Order of the Flame Dungeon Hack Icewind Dale & Heart of Winter -- FAQ/Walkthrough Items List Kresselack's Tomb Map (JPG) Burial Isle Map (JPG) Shattered Hand Map (JPG) Icewind Dale II -- Items List Master of Magic (revision) Messiah Pharaoh (currently being edited by Red Phoenix) Planescape: Torment -- FAQ/Walkthrough Items Listing Rollercoaster Tycoon Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri The Sims Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar Ultima 7: The Black Gate Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle Ultima Underworld -- Keyboard Commands Ultima Underworld II -- Keyboard Commands -- Spell List All of my FAQs can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/2203.html ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ________________ Version History: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Original Version (6-5-99, 15k) STILL TO DO: Finish listing all the planes! Changes in 1.1 (7-30-99, 17k) Added the Other Strategies section complete with 1 strategy! Some Small Changes and Addendums Changes in 1.2 (10-1-99, 21k) Small format Changes Small Changes Changes in Version 1.3 (2-29-00, 24k) Pretty much the same as 1.2, Small Changes and Small Format Changes Changes in Version 1.31 (4-26-00, 25k) Updated the format some Small Changes Version 2.0 April 18, 2001 32k Reformatted and updated a little. Then added lots of good information from Korath. Version 2.1 January 17, 2005 32k Changed my email address, and updated the format. Version 2.2 January 22, 2005 38k Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on the cost of planes, and the effect of Business Ventures. Version 2.3 January 23, 2005 44k Added quite a bit of new information from AlbertC79 on Passenger Totals in the Route section. _______________________________________________________________________________ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This Document is Copyright 1999-2005 by Dan Simpson Aerobiz Supersonic is Copyright by Koei I am not affiliated with Koei, or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ.