APRON - Aviation Management

Two years ago, I started building an airline management game.

What began as a personal project slowly grew into a full airline simulation: aircraft, airports, staff, contracts, maintenance, fuel, schedules, ticket prices, competition, and an economy that reacts to the decisions you make.

After countless evenings of coding, balancing, testing, breaking things and rebuilding them, APRON — Aviation Management is finally at the point where I can share a first playable demo.

Build your airline from the ground up

APRON is a strategy and management simulation about running an airline in a living aviation economy.

You start small. Find profitable routes, build your network, acquire aircraft, negotiate with airports and gradually establish a presence in new regions. As your airline grows, so does the complexity of keeping it running.

Your aircraft are only one part of the puzzle. You need pilots and cabin crew, maintenance capabilities, fuel infrastructure, gates and facilities. Every expansion creates new opportunities — and new costs.

Demand is not a number on a spreadsheet

One of the things I wanted APRON to do differently is make the airline's economy feel dynamic.

Passenger demand is generated from a global demand matrix based on real-world airport traffic and geographic distance. But demand isn't simply waiting for you to collect it.

Your pricing decisions matter.

Set your ticket prices too high and passengers disappear. Price aggressively and you can fill your aircraft, but potentially leave money on the table. Your airline's reputation also affects what passengers are willing to pay, while competing airlines fight you for the same passengers.

Fuel prices fluctuate. Airport fees affect your costs. Your network presence influences negotiations and even the availability of additional gates. What looks like a profitable route today might look very different tomorrow.

Why I'm releasing this demo

This is still a project made by one person, and it has been a long journey.

For roughly two years, I've been working on APRON in my spare time — designing systems, writing the simulation, building the interface, researching aviation, creating the visuals and, perhaps most importantly, constantly asking myself whether all these systems actually make for a fun game.

The demo is the first time I'm opening that process up to other people.

It's not the finished game. There are still things I want to improve, systems I want to expand and plenty of rough edges left to polish.

But it has reached the point where I no longer want to keep it on my machine.

So this is APRON. My first public build.

If you're interested in airline management, simulation games, economics, or simply want to see what two years of obsessive side-project development can turn into, I'd love for you to give it a try.

And if you do — feedback is very welcome ❤️

Cheers!