Melbourne International Airport

I thought that since I’ve had a bit more time to play the game than most, I would post my current effort, which I’ve started after release. I started with $1,000,000 and no cheats/loans etc. So I’m slowly building up.

Additionally, if you have any questions about how I’ve set things up, why I’ve done certain things etc. Please feel free to ask :slight_smile: I will be updating this topic along with the airport (assuming the save doesn’t break at some point).

So, without further ado, here is the development of Melbourne International Airport (Australia):


^ Here is an overview of the airport. As you can see, I’m starting in one corner and giving myself lots of room to expand to the rest of the map.


^This is the road network around the terminal area and service areas. As you can see, we have all land transit options set up as well as refueling services (this was added after the airport opened since I couldn’t afford it to start).


^The checkin hall is pretty devoid of anything because when I opened, I had very little money to add seating or more than what there is currently. This will be rectified soon. As you can see, there is no baggage handling yet since I can’t afford it.


^Security, bathrooms and the staffroom. As you can see, staff have their own security checkpoint from their staff area straight into the secure airside, so they don’t need to wait in line.


^The secure airside. As you can see, it’s mostly seating of various arrangement and colours, as well as a small food shop, Swift Veg. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re going to hit the sales target since we don’t have enough passengers through.


^We started with just two medium gates and we’ve recently added the third one in, which is about ready to take flights now.




^As you can see, adding in the third gate has caused quite a lot of congestion throughout the airport. Not to mention, the staff facility is getting a bit crowded. Time to expand now we have a bit more money!


^The new staff facility being built in the expanded section of the terminal now.


^Much more room, which means the old staff facility can now be demolished to make way for more checkpoints.


^ We’ve also added more bus stops out front and made the area a bit more pleasant, with shelters and plants now.


^ And we’ve added a new security check point so passengers don’t have to wait so long in line.

As you can see, things are coming along quite well, and financially we’re making a decent amount of cash. So in the next update, I’ll be tackling adding in a baggage service to this airport, since I finally have enough money to procure it!

Until next time :smiley:

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Hahaha, most of it was out of necessity since I lost both my previous saves to all the updates and patching during testing :wink:

With regards to your edits though, I was sort of hoping to do something like that with this thread. So people could see the progression of getting the airport setup etc. Cos I’m going to do baggage next since I’ve nearly saved up enough money :slight_smile:

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Love this! Great to see how different players have different ideas. I’m going to copy the security access via the staff room idea :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, why have your vehicle depot so far from the planes? It would make more sense for this to be at the top of the vertical road to get to your planes quicker :slight_smile: unless you intend on adding more stands down there of course!

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Yeah, by all means do! I myself got that idea off another tester :stuck_out_tongue: It saves a lot of time and avoids your staff getting stuck in the other queues and delaying flights.

When I started building I deliberately left that space empty in order to build baggage handling facilities there. Which, all going to plan should be the next update. Reason being:

  1. It’ll be right next to the terminal, so the quickest possible access for ramp agents etc.
  2. It backs onto the arrivals hall (currently the massive empty expanse), so bags will have minimal travel times to get to arrivals, meaning I clear arriving passengers out of the airport sooner :slight_smile:

Time for another update! This time we’ve saved up enough money to tackle the thorny issue of baggage handling. To prepare for this, I procured both basic baggage handling and tilt trays. Just to be clear, for the time being my airport doesn’t have baggage scanning and I will tackle that in a later update (when I’ve saved up more money). As always, feel free to pop any questions you have below :slight_smile:

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^As you can see, I have deliberately not expanded the gate areas or anything, since I want to check that the system I build can cope with the existing demand. As you’ll also note, I’m building it with a much larger airport in mind, with multiple baggage bays.

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^Since the baggage bays are coming along nicely, I’ve also started connecting up all the check-in desks. All the bags will be transported underground to the bay/s.

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^Now to start wiring up all the bays, trying to keep things as neat as possible :wink:

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^ While tilt trays are still being procured, I’ve started wiring up the arrivals belts. I put them underneath and drag them so they don’t go under the actual bay (which can cause conflicts from time to time). As you can see, for the time being, they all lead to one carousel, because at the moment I only plan to use the top bay, since I only have three gates. In future I will expand arrivals into the big blank space and redesign all the carousels etc. and use tilt trays to split arriving baggage up.

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^ I’ve now drawn connections between all the checkin desks, the gates and the single arrivals area. When the airport gets busier, I might split some of the existing desks to the other bays.

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^ Tilt trays are procured now, so I’m adding them to all the intersections and setting them to ‘To Destination’. They will direct bags to the appropriate bays when I start using all three of them later in the airport’s development.

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^ As you can see, it’s all wired up and neat now, and the ramp agents have arrived! The huge amount of empty space at the top is for scanning facilities when I eventually add them in.

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^ My service vehicles are in the depot, so it’s time to enable baggage handling and see how we fare!

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^ The first flight is having its bags unloaded. As you can see, it doesn’t require loading since its passengers had already checked in before I enabled baggage services.

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^ Success! Some happy passengers getting their bags back.

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^ Now passengers for the next bank of flights are checking in, and their bags are heading into the bay. The tilt tray sends them all to the first bay since the other two are not in use or connected to anything.

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^ Busy times at the baggage bay, but with 5 agents per side, there are no issues.

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^ Success! Bags are being loaded as passengers board now. As you can see, the plane is turned around well before its scheduled departure time, and the plane pushes back 45 minutes early to taxi to the runway.

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Overall, this has been a very successful baggage launch for our airport. Next time we’ll look at expanding our gates and making the passenger flow a bit better :slight_smile:

Until then!

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I haven’t really been on steam discussion, but feel free to if you think it’s helpful?

Yeah that’s a good point. Also because I’m not sure if overground demolition has been separated from underground yet, meaning I’ll probably have to rebuilt it if I ever demolish that wall.

Wow! Great tutorial or demonstration! Going to start my airport again… Ha! You seem to have zero GA on your airport, is that right?

Thank you :slight_smile: And yup that’s correct, medium size flights tend to being in enough if you have a full bank of flights, and its best not to delay them with GA in between when it gets busier :slight_smile:

Time for a new update, lots of little changes made here and there since cash flow is progressively improving :slight_smile:



^ First things first, we’ve extended the concourse a bit and added in a new gate.


^ This includes our first shop, FlyGo :slight_smile:


^ As you can see, things in the landside area are starting to get kind of messy and congested, so we’re going to slowly start making modifications.



^ We’re starting off by shifting the bathrooms, to eventually make way for more security and queues.


^ We’ve also started to make provisions to move the current Swift Veg to a new location once it’s current contract expires, to again make more room for security.



^ The baggage bay was getting a little bit busy, so we upped the number of ramp agents tending it and flights are still getting away on time.




^ Arrivals is looking very cramped though, and the belt isn’t long enough anymore. So we’re working on expanding arrivals.




^ The updates to the system include a new carousel to replace the old one, as well as scanners and luggage destroyers now.



^ New systems in place and working just fine!

Until next time, where we make more further incremental changes :slight_smile:

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Nice work. Looks pretty good.

The staff room idea can also be turned around making the entire staffroom secure, because more people work on the secure site,less scanning.

I see you have people inside your baggage claim area,if you don’t like that and want it really neat,zone the inside as staff only :wink:

Good luck expanding!

Thank you! :slight_smile:

Yes good idea, I was thinking of that, but since I’m probably going to move my staff room again at some point I might leave it until then. But you’re right it’ll save a lot of time when all the ramp agents switch over for example.

And yes I have done that since the last update. Its a weird quirk I must say, there was a point during alpha testing where I remember that not happening but oh well :stuck_out_tongue:

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It’s been a while since an update so I’ll just post a few pictures to help you get an idea of the changes that have been made here and there :slight_smile:




^ Firstly, we went ahead and added a fifth gate! :smiley:



^ With some bottlenecks starting to pile up, we went and started use of the second baggage bay.


^ We also went ahead and added a second runway, to divide our departures and arrivals.


^ To cater for the new baggage bay, we went and built a new baggage carousel in arrives. This area will eventually be rejigged since it’s getting a bit haphazard again :wink:




^ With security bottlenecking, we’ve decided to move the cafe now its contract has expired, in order to make room for more checkpoints.




^ With the new cafe complete, the old one was demolished and so began the process of aligning the new checkpoints.



^ Much better now!




^ Next we rejigged the landside transport hub, to make it more user friendly and more pleasant (and able to handle more passengers).


^ We’ve created a new ramp agent only staff room closer to the baggage bays and gates.


^ Finally, with all the cash we’ve been saving, big expansions are afoot :wink:

Until next time!

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It’s been a while! Unfortunately one of my versions of the save file corrupted, so I had to work back to where I was previously, but I have some new updates :slight_smile:


^Had to redo the drop off area, with some slight modifications this time around, setting the stops off the actual road itself.



^ I made some background changes to the baggage bays to prepare it to handle more baggage. In future the plan is to manage the loading by having two incoming areas, which means we will have to double the scanning capacity etc.


^ Updated checkin hall. The old desks on the left were eventually demolished. But this significantly expands the capacity of the desks.



^ Next we set out to move security from its current location to the new location. This frees up room to make arrivals roomier, and also is helping plan for future airport expansion to the right.


^ With this in place, we’re moving towards a proper arrivals area with the freed up space.


^ But we’re really going to be pushing the bounds of my laptop’s processing power soon :wink:

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It’s been a while since I’ve updated and a lot has happened since then (namely my airport is becoming too big for my laptop to run) :stuck_out_tongue:


^ We completed the overhaul of the main baggage claim area. This includes 3 large carousels, 1 per bay. The arriving baggage is all separated by bay now so they don’t face any congestion or tilt trays.


^ The newly redone checkin hall has more than enough desks to cope with the current demand.


^ The arriving and departing flows are now properly separated, with the security in the middle of the terminal now, and 10 stations.


^We’ve opened up 8 gates now and they is pushing the limits of my laptop quite a lot.


^ Also nice to see A320s around the airport now!


^ All the expansions are now complete, but I haven’t been using it except GA on the odd occasion. I’ve got to work out how I want to lay out the new checkin desks/arrivals etc.

Until next time! :slight_smile:

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Any updates on this?

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Very kind of you to ask but I haven’t played this airport for ages now, I’m not sure the file even works any more.

If I do find time I would love to start another airport, but I think everyone else has more experience with the game now :wink:

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