Hello guys! Just letting you know that chapter 2 is up! Scroll down to the bottom of the page or click the link down below to take a read. If you’re new, please disregard this and start at chapter 1.
Welcome to Aeroport de Benidorm: An Airport Story, a new idea I had inspired by Sid Meier’s Civilization AARs, or after action reports over on Civfanatics. What this thread is, essentially, is a recollection of me playing through a game of Airport CEO from the perspective of the CEO in game. Each game I do (assuming I get to multiple and this is well-received) will largely be me setting my own goals, however, I will stick to a few basic rules throughout:
- Games are played with sandbox mode turned off. For the purposes of this first airport, I started off with plenty of cash as I figured out how to do this in the first place.
- I cannot acquire money through any means not included in the game.
- If I run out of money, I am run out of town, and the game is over.
I should also note that the starting airport isn’t actually Benidorm’s airport (the actual city doesn’t have one). I threw together a small little airstrip to serve as a “starting point” for the story. With that said, lets get started.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Getting My Feet Wet
Chapter 2: A Delayed Chapter About Delays
Chapter 1: Getting My Feet Wet
Benvinguda! My name is Josep Hernandez, and I have just been hired as CEO of the airport in the coastal city of Benidorm in southeast Spain. Benidorm is a bustling tourist spot in the world’s second most visited country with a beautiful coastline peppered in beaches. Unfortunately, however, cruises largely dominate the tourism industry around here. I am here to change that.
This is Benidorm’s current airport. As you can see in the image, it is a very small airport with no paved taxiway, a grass strip runway, and traffic primarily consisting of general aviation. It is not the most ideal tourist aiport, but fortunately, there is some good news.
As you can see, even though it is only my first day on the job, we already have a busy day ahead of us, with the airport’s 2 gates being completely booked all day by Stripe Air and Forest Air. This is great; it is a sign that there is interest in coming to town by air, and it will provide us with a stable source of income for our early expansion plans.
This is the current terminal. It is built next to a crowded endpoint of a road and is woefully tiny, lacking any amenities other than the most basic restroom and plastic bench. No passenger will want to travel into this mess. To add insult to injury, our expansion options for the existing building are extremely limited, as the fuel station is immediately to the south of the facility, with the vehicle depot not far north, either. At most, we could expand to four gates with this woeful facility, and the proximity to the runway could pose issues if we decide to expand to jet-service, as we would need wider taxiways for such an occurrence.
In light of the current situation, I have decided to use the funding I received to construct a new state of the art facility to begin the airport’s expansion. Here you can see the basic outline I decided to go with. A simple rectangular design ought to do for our purposes, since, even with the larger facility, we still are going to limit ourselves to prop aircraft due to the short runway and funding. To it’s south is the outline for a state of the art transportation center where passengers can easily catch either a public bus or their tour coach. I placed the building a fair enough distance away from current facilities to ensure room for expansion, both in terms of more gates as well as larger planes.
Here is a shot showing how the expansion, now under construction, would fit in with the airport as a whole.
Great, we’re having issues. This Stripe Air flight is delayed for an hour. The airline is calling me, wondering where it’s plane is. After walking over there to figure out what’s going on, I noticed what you probably have by now. Where’s the staff? Why aren’t the passengers on the plane?
Upon further evaluation, there is actually a SURPLUS of staff scheduled for this time. Again I must ask the question, where is the staff?! I didn’t authorize a break!!!
Oh, now my computer system shows a shortage. How nice of it to warn me AFTER the airline has complained.
I decided to bring a couple more staff members onto our crew in order to prevent this sort of issue from occurring in the future. Please welcome Mr. Aliyev and Ms. Sargsyan to the team.
The next morning, I arrive to find our contractors making great pace on constructing our new facilities. Here is an image of the layout for the interior. You might be asking, “Josep, why is only half the terminal under construction?” That is a very good question, with a rather simple answer: I’d want to get at least part of the terminal running and churning out cash rather than wait for it all to be finished (plus I’m not sure what to put in the other half quite yet anyway…). Also, the large empty area will be used for a shop in the near future, already a great amenity compared to the previous building.
While we are in the business of remodeling, I went ahead and ordered our runway to be paved. It may seem like a waste now, but airlines will inevitably demand it soon.
A few hours later, the first half of our new terminal is nearly ready to open! It already feels more roomy. I should point out, however, that the old terminal will remain in operation until the entirety of this terminal is open in order to maximize profits.
The inaugural passengers are here! Stripe Air has the honor of hosting the first flight out of the new terminal, destined to Milan, Italy.
Here’s the aircraft, a small DHC-6. As it pulls up to the gate, a small celebration erupts in my office, as this is my first major accomplishment as CEO.
A few hours later, the aircraft is turned around to mark the first takeoff on the updated runway as my first few days as CEO are complete. The future looks bright, and I am excited to continue coming to work.