Terminal-based gate assignment as an alternative to fixed gate assignment

[Safari]

Hi everyone,

If I remember correctly, version 3.0 introduced the ability to assign fixed gates to specific flights. This feature has hugely boosted the game’s realism. As a realism enthusiast, I now go through almost every large airport I play and assign gates strictly according to how flights are distributed in the real world.

At first I was really happy with this. But the more I use it, the more I notice that it actually conflicts with how things work in reality. The thing is, most airports don’t assign a specific gate to a specific airline or flight number. Instead, they assign flights to a terminal, and sometimes factor in other things like proximity to lounges, etc.

A couple of examples:

1. London Heathrow (LHR) assigns Terminals 2, 3, and 4 strictly based on airline alliance membership.

2. Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (BKK) groups Star Alliance carriers together in a specific area of the terminal.

So here’s my suggestion: in addition to the existing option to assign a fixed gate, could the system add an option to assign a flight to a specific terminal instead?

Under this option, the flight could be parked at any available stand within the assigned terminal. This wouldn’t create chaos — if anything, it would actually mirror real-world operations more closely. For example, even some full-service carriers end up at remote stands during peak hours, and that kind of variation is part of what makes a real airport feel alive.

I think this would be a pretty reasonable design choice. I don’t know how others feel about it. I don’t have much game development experience, so I’m not sure how much work this would add for the dev team — but based on my past experience with mobile app development, I don’t think it would require a huge amount of extra effort.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Since this is still a rough idea, I haven’t emailed the developers directly yet — wanted to hear what the community thinks first.

Thanks!

[nomansland]

You should put your idea in the suggestions category to see how many votes it gets!

[CJ_RVWilliams]

I’m very supportive of changes of this sort. I really like the scheduler and have been setting it up at every airport recently as I reopen it and/or the remodel comes out for super old airports. But it’s clunky at times because the system is too heavy handed. So a few comments:

The thing is, most airports don’t assign a specific gate to a specific airline or flight number. Instead, they assign flights to a terminal, and sometimes factor in other things like proximity to lounges, etc.

This is true at some airports, but there’s so much variation across different countries and regions that I wouldn’t say “most airports don’t assign a specific gate to s specific airline”.

In Keflavik, this is largely true. The vast majority of gates don’t have any airline markings, and because most passengers are going through passport control and this is a single terminal airport, there isn’t any sort of regularity to where an airline you are flying on parks on the tarmac (at least as far as I can tell).

In Europe, you’ll have regardless of airline alliance the need to split passengers between Schengen and non-Schengen flights, so that adds a bit more consideration. (Edit: this is done in Reykjavik as well, with A gates, and level 2 C gates serving Schengen flights).

In the United States, airports have both exclusive use and common use gates and terminals. Airlines will almost always park at their gates as thats where their terminal staff and airside ground crew are assigned. There’s of course some leeway during cascading delays and cancellations, but in general, the flight will always land its airline’s assigned gate or at the gate of an airline it contracts service out to at an airport (this is why IcelandAir customers in Denver use the Lufthansa ticket counter, the Lufthansa leased gates, when flying through the airport).

To put that in in game terms

• C/D Concourse at IAD is leased to United, United Express, and its partners. In Concourse A/B, you have a mix of common use stands as well as exclusive use stands for certain airlines that have more frequent connections.
• MSY is more complicated. None of the terminal piers are specifically leased to a single airline. A is mostly Breeze, Frontier, Sun Country, and International flights. Pier B is American and Southwest with exclusive stands. Pier C is United, Delta, and Alaska exclusive stands, with Spirit’s gates now being common use (though they actually exclusively leased stands before they went under).

So if the goal is to mimic realism, purely assigning a terminal or pier isn’t enough.

So here’s my suggestion: in addition to the existing option to assign a fixed gate, could the system add an option to assign a flight to a specific terminal instead?

I think this is the simplest solution, but it limits the use to only a few airports. A benefit to a system like this though, is with planes landing at different places, the airport becomes more dynamic and isn’t the same all the time. So what I would propose is:

Let planes be scheduled to multiple gates or terminals, and the lander will select where they go when gates are assigned.

This gives the greatest flexibility to players regardless of how the airport operates IRL, while increasing how dynamic the airport feels day to day. And to me, thats the better solution as it makes it usable across the wider variety of airports as opposed to just a few that use terminal based gate assignments as opposed to (collection of) stand based assignments.

This wouldn’t create chaos

What this would create is liveliness, and I think thats important. The less same as always an airport feels day to day, the more interesting the airport will remain. So in that realm of thought, I also want to plug daily schedules as well, so that planes aren’t coming back every day!

[Safari]

Yes, that’s a great suggestion. I didn’t think of that at the time, so perhaps I should move the post over there.

[Royston2712]

i think Scheduler 2.0 would be great with the introduction of Gate or terminal specific scheduling depending on how you want to play it.

[Safari]

Are you sure these features are on their roadmap? I’m not sure they even think about that.

[Royston2712]

i never said it was on the roadmap. i was meaning IF they wanted to improve the scheduler that would be a good idea

[gpr49697]

This wouls be my number 1 request. Just I front of splitting runway operation for the 3rd runway at YSSY to be setup like MCT