The Southend (SEN) Chronicles

[talisman56]

Started a new Airport today, and a change from my usual Bristol International (BRS). This airport is a popular destination of flights from BRS (heaven only knows why), so I thought it would be nice to see my usual airport from the other end of the flightpath…

Game started on Default branch, Ver. B2.2-1. Difficult setting, £1M starting funds, Emergencies common…

The GA area all set up and running, airfield all fenced in, some adjustment to the entry roads and the contractor areas resited. A contractor staff room and basic temporary Admin building have been built:

More progress, the initial Terminal building and Gate block have been built, and flights have started coming in. The empty stand is the designated one for Emergency flights, directly connected to the Terminal building, with basic Boarding stand connected:

The reason for the adjustment of the airport entry roads becomes apparent when one looks at Level -1:

No sooner have flights started, and we get our first Emergency: Volcano Ash incoming…:

…which really upsets the carefully crafted flight schedule. There are several flights on top of one another at the right-hand end of the schedule, and on following days, flights allocated during the nighttime period - the Administrators haven’t got round to doing the R&D on Night Flights yet:

It would probably be much better for this Emergency if the flights that are due to arrive and/or depart in the duration of the Emergency were cancelled, rather than pushing them back. It really is a task to get the flights back into some sort of order, half of which I couldn’t do until the Night Flights R&D was completed and the nighttime block removed. A look at the Flight Monitor revealed nine flights all due in at the same time… The airport staff worked tirelessly to get them all in and out as quickly as possible, even during the nighttime block period. Unfortunately a Maple Express aircraft was declared unairworthy by the Ramp Agents and thus became the first plane to visit the Hangar recently provided in the GA area:

A final (for now) overall view of the airport, showing the Police Station and Emergency Response Station recently constructed, the Administrators being hard at work on that R&D item while the Volcano was doing its thing… A second, Commercial Hangar has been built at the far end of the Taxiway:

[OctavioA]

Very good project. The airport is very nice.

Can you take more detailed screenshots of the first terminal and the small building?

Have a nice Friday!

[talisman56]

Having seen B2.2-3 drop on Default branch, a quick try of the new airport with the fixes.

For OctavioA, detailed looks at the temporary Admin and main Terminal buildings:

The temporary Admin building is something I use to get the R&D started while I decide how to structure the small Commercial Terminal for the build. Commercial Licence, the first Program Group, Floor Construction Permit and Emergency Response Units keep them happy while the CEO designs out the Terminal and the Contractors start construction. This 3x3 staff room with a small 2x1 Bathroom is enough room for up to 8 Administrators, the CEO and one each of Janitor and Service Technician. When the Terminal Staff Room is ready the Janitor and Service Tech are relocated over there; they can use the path between the two buildings if they are needed back in the Admin Office.

The main Terminal building - compact (12x12), with enough room for all the necessary facilities and limited expansion. There will be expansoin upstairs later, and the Security section will be moved to make room for Franchises, and the seating rearranged when the Check-in area proper is created in an extension to building at Level 0.

A little time passes, we have R&D’d Night Flights, Advance[d] Runway Lighting and Extended Commercial Licence so can now schedule flights round-the-clock and, with a Radar Tower built, the airport can now handle 75 Commercial flights a day. Two more airlines have been signed to provide additional flights; all six Gates are now in operation, and the usual three small planes have been joined by the Saab 340B for the first time (Gate 5).

[talisman56]

Another small update.

The admins have been busy, researching Proactive Maintenance and Automation, before turning their attention to getting the airport its Medium Aircraft Permit. Each of the Gates now has a self-boarding gate, which is speeding up getting the PAX onto the plane.

The CEO has been reviewing where the airlines contracted to the airport are conveying their passengers. He has found it’s a very limited number of domestic destinations (just the IATA codes are listed):

Maple: BHD, GLO, LDY
Edwards: GLO, BOH, LDY, BHD
Forrest: GLO, BOH, NCL, LDY, BHD
Goose: BHD, BOH, GLO
Strada: BOH, GLO, LDY, BHD

It seems that a bit of work needs to be done in getting the game use some of the other 52 airports (some of which will be too close) in the UK as well as this limited selection.

The General Aviation aircraft travel to a more wide selection of places:
GA: LDY, BHD, DSA, GLO, ESH, SOU, SEN (see below for this last one…)

One of the GA planes is obviously only going out for a joyride…:

…but he didn’t get a chance, as an inspection deemed their plane unairworthy and it was later seen in a hangar. Why it went to a hangar at the other end of the taxiway instead of the one next door to the stand it was on is not known…

A start has been made on Level 1 of the main terminal building:

[talisman56]

Update for today, and now that the Airport is permitted to accept Medium aircraft, progress has been started on expanding the Terminal facilites to handle the additional passenger traffic.

Level 1 of the Terminal building has been completed, and comprises a new Security area, passenger seating and bathrooms, and a new Administration Office.

The old Security area on Level 0 has been cleared and prepared for further use. The passengers now have to walk to the opposite corner of the Terminal to get up to Security, but they won’t have to do that for very much longer:

While this was going on, we handled the first fly-in Emergency to use the Emergency stand, a Stripe Air flight with a possible fuel problem…

…which was quickly and successfully resolved:

The Administrators have also been busy, doing research on Program (Group 2), Subway Permit, and Jet A-1 fuelling, the last of which has enabled the airport to provide refuelling to Commercial aircraft, and bringing in additional revenue:

They are currently working on Baggage Handling, which will provide us with the larger Check-in desks that will handle more passengers and enable them to check-in hold baggage.

The Contractors moved on to expanding the Level -1 Transit hub, adding another bus stop, two each of taxi and car stops, and Long term and Staff car parks:

…before moving on to demolishing the now-unused basic Admin block:

The Service Techs and Janitors had a particularly nasty Emergency to deal with, one of the Bathrooms had a water explosion. I hope there weren’t any passengers in there at the time…

[humoresque]

Looking amazing!

[talisman56]

After a couple of busy days, back to ACEO…

After stabilising cash flow with the current terminal, the CEO took a deep breath and visited the Bank for a big loan…

Second build area unlocked, contractors at work fencing it in:

While the outside work was being finished, the Administrators were at work getting the technology in - Shops and Cafes…:

A bit of Terminal extending gave the room to set up a larger Check-in area, and the original one cleared for further use.

And they then ran through the Baggage Handling R&D, along with Tilt Trays and Belt Loaders.
The contractors were then tasked with building a Medium Runway and associated Taxiways, stands and Terminal extension for the Gates:

…and eventually the first Medium aircraft landed:

The CEO now needs to curb his expansionist ways while the finances settle down and he can afford to get the baggage handling systems built…

Emergency of the day: A Strada Regional Saab 340B with an in-flight security incident. The airport Police took care of it and the miscreant(s) were transported off-site to a nearby holding facility:

[talisman56]

Some ‘hurry up and wait’ for the CEO in the past couple of days as he waits for the big loan he took out to get the medium runway, etc., build is paid off.

When the medium aircraft started being scheduled on a regular basis, the bank balance slowly grew, and a third medium stand and medium Emergency stand was built, along with the associated Terminal extension:

…and the small Jet A-1 fuel depot was replaced by a medium depot:

A start was made on providing a Baggage Reclaim area, and alternate exit down to the Transit Zone on Level -1. The original Security Exit gate and the corridor leading to the entrance stairs were removed and the space incorporated into an enlarged and rearranged Check-in waiting area:

…which had another set of bus stops, and taxi and car drops built to complete the area:

The Baggage Reclaim area was fully kitted out.

Finally, the loan was paid off and a surge in the funds available enabled a Baggage Handling area and service vehicle parking area to be built. The area awaits the final stands to be linked up and the airport can start handling passenger baggage for them:

And as a final item, self-check-in and bag drops were provided:

A couple of Emergencies handled (apart from the frequent unairworthy aircraft caught on the stands) was a first visit from an Air Ambulance…

First unairworthy Medium aircraft, and not far for it to travel to the hangar for repair:

[VOID]

Can we please get a full arial view of the entire airport please?

[talisman56]

Big plans for today’s session, but first an overview of the current state of play:

No sooner had the CEO settled down to do a bit of heavy-duty planning, when a bird strike emergency occurred…:

…and a bit of whingeing from the alert system prompted the building of another long-term parking lot on Level -1:

One loan application later, and the CEO was laying out the beginning of a new Terminal:

Level 0 of the main Terminal building - Check-in, Baggage Claim and Staff room…:

…and the first Gate arm with Gate B11:

Level 1 of the main Terminal building: Security and Gate B10:

Meanwhile, the efforts of the Administrators had unearthed the secrets of Multiple Terminal Operations and Terminal A was zoned:

With the building work on Terminal B largely complete, the contractors moved underground to the Transit zone:

The Transit zone and the Terminal completed, and staff recruitment done, the flights for Tulip Airlines were transferred from Terminal A, enabling the backlog of flights awaiting scheduling for the other Airlines there to be cleared. The passengers for the first flight in the new Terminal checking-in:

Later, both stands were seen to be in action…:

…and the Baggage handling system:

Finally, an overall view of the current layout:

[VOID]

Nice! And the airport is looking nice from above

[humoresque]

@talisman56

Later, both stands were seen to be in action…:

Pls, on that picture make the road concrete till the edge of the stands (I am a perfectionist )

[talisman56]

Pls, on that picture make the road concrete till the edge of the stands (I am a perfectionist )

Too late now - when I laid it I didn’t have access to concrete roads and there’s too much traffic on it to delete/re-lay it…

[talisman56]

Today’s work was a small bit of expansion, and providing add-on services to the Airlines.

The addition of Gates B12 and B14 enabled the transfer of Wildcat Air flights to Terminal B. B12 is a ground-level stand, B14 a stand with Jetway boarding, the terminal level being directly above Gate B11.

The main Terminal building was extended a bit to add a couple more Check-in desks and additional seating for the passengers.

Airline Catering and Cabin Cleaning is now possible:

The Medium Fuel Depot was moved from next to the small Emergency stand to ‘out in the wilds’ near to the Catering and Refuse centres, and a couple of attached tanks added.

With 4 stands active and a good through flow of passengers, a cafe was added to Terminal B Check-in hall.

Before the contractors were directed to double the Transit Zone facilities.

…and the final ‘big picture’ for today:

[Kreyma]

you don’t have to delete.
When the roads are there you can build the new road over it and it will update it immidiately without destroying

Besides that: really nice airport. Keep going!

[humoresque]

Yep, I was going to say that

[humoresque]

I also love the compactness!!

[talisman56]

A small update for today, as the airport has been in wait mode while the big loan was paid off…

The gap in the first Gate arm on Terminal B was filled in, one more domestic Medium stand, and to serve it, Air Strada were signed on:

A little extension to the main terminal building enabled additional check-in facilities to be provided:

While this was going on, the CEO noticed a little problem in the Security zone, and took action to resolve it:

With all the extensions on Level 0, there was now room to expand Level 1 and satisfy more than a few passenger gripes:

Also noted was the periodic queues for aircraft waiting to take off…

Now comes the decision of what to do about the proposed second Gate arm. The CEO is of a mind to make it an International Zone with a couple of medium stands and two or three large stands. To do this, the other two land areas will need to be purchased to provide room for a couple of new large runways, one to replace the existing medium runway and the other to enable separate take-off and landing runways. Time to get saving…

[talisman56]

The money is rolling in, approx £400k profit each day, before construction costs.

The first additional land area purchase, the contractors erecting the security fence…

Followed a couple of days later by the other one:

The Transit zone then needed a bit of expansion, doubling the bus and taxi area and adding another short-term parking lot, then came the serious money accumulation:

After 3 days, it was possible to do a bit of stealth building at night-time. The CFO came in the next morning and immediately reached for his heart pills - £1.2M spent overnight, and almost completed construction…

…after which the runway was set up for landings only, and the original Medium Runway changed to take-offs only. The first planes came in:

A second medium hangar had appeared at some point, and two additional medium stands, the start of construction on the International side of the Terminal…

…followed by the Gate arm structure which will serve the stands:

Level 0 of the main Terminal building has been extended to provide additional room for the Check-in desks for the International area, along with a relocation of the entrance stairs for departing passengers and the nearby information desk, additional bathrooms, and a lot more seating. New bathrooms have been provided on the site of the old entrance, and the original bathrooms demolished to make way for a small extension to the Baggage Claim area:

The Baggage handling was expanded with another Baggage Bay, this was connected to the existing Scanning system, at least for now:

Finally for this update, another extension underground, with a second Subway entrance, and a new Transit zone area, separated from the original one to (possibly) help with traffic flow issues.

Next on the list is a new Security area with passport checkpoints, and building on Level 1 to link this up with the Gate arm, with restaurants and shops for the departing International passengers.

[talisman56]

Massive building spree today, finishing off Level 1 of Terminal B.

First, a couple of additional car parks, for staff (lower) and long-term (upper):

With plenty of money in the bank, the CEO decided to do all the terminal build at once, rather than as-and-when-required, so the new Security area and Departure Hall were built. Space for up to 6 medium Security Gates, departure and arrival Passport Control areas, with room for additional gates, and a huge area to fill up with cafe/restaurants and shops.

At first, the PAX for the first flight got lost trying to get to the departure gate, but a bit of testing revealed that they were just being bloody-minded, and a save/reload kicked them in the proper direction:

The arrivals from the first flight found their way quite easily:

Having proved the concept, Swiftly were the first airline signed up to service the new International Terminal:

Having held off providing food or shops until more flights were being handled, repeated complaints by the PAX resulted in a restaurant being provided:

After failing to reach target in the first day, a few flights from the airlines serving the rest of the terminal were scheduled on Gate B18 and provided enough custom to keep the restaurant running to target.

An overall view of Level 1 of Terminal B…:

…and the current state of the main area of the airport:

A little bit of time left over before the session ended, an Airline Lounge was built:

The bank balance is rapidly growing towards the million mark again, so early next session will see the second Large Runway being built…