A flight number is your commercial product: a number of 2–8 letters and digits, a routing of one or more legs, a days-of-week pattern, departure times (entered in UTC; the game resolves red-eye legs to the next day), fares per cabin, an on-board service level, an optional validity window, and, eventually, an aircraft to fly it.

Round trips are pairs#

Following real-world convention, the outbound and the return fly under different numbers. The wizard has no modes to pick between: it opens as one leg, and ⇄ Add return mirrors it back. The return number is suggested as outbound + 1 (QF401 out, QF402 back), and the Suggest button finds a free consecutive pair. The two numbers are created together and validated as one rotation: a lone one-way number can never close a weekly tour, so the pair lives or dies as a unit against the seven gates.

Pairs stay linked afterwards. On the Flight Numbers page each half shows a ⇄ chip pointing at its twin; assigning a pooled pair to an aircraft boards both directions together, and "Cancel pair" removes both with one confirmation. Duplicating one half of a pair seeds the wizard with both directions.

The same builder covers the other shapes. + Add leg extends a single number over a chain (A to B to C) for a through-service or a closed loop; give those legs distinct numbers instead and you get a multi-city chain, each sector numbered in its own right. The wizard infers which of the three you meant from the legs you built, so there is no mode to set and no wrong menu to be in.

Fares and service#

Every fare row is optional: a blank cabin sells at the engine's auto price, computed per leg from its distance, and keeps tracking it. Set a number to take control. Return fares mirror the outbound until you deliberately split them. Service level runs from None to Premium and costs per passenger-hour; see Pricing & fares.

Assigning and the pool#

Create with a tail selected and flights materialize immediately; the wizard reports the weekly departure count. Create unassigned and the number waits in the pool: only traffic rights and departure curfews were checked, and the equipment gates run at assignment, with a live verdict as you pick a tail. Reassigning to a different aircraft moves the whole number.

Editing and cancelling#

Editing a number's times, days or routing offers two paths:

  • Apply now: the current future schedule is withdrawn (booked passengers are compensated) and the new plan materializes immediately.
  • Cutover in N days: flights before the cutover keep flying, and keep their bookings, on the old times; the new schedule starts after.

Cancelling a number removes all its future flights. Booked passengers are refunded plus a 20% compensation penalty, and your image takes a hit: cancellation is a real cost, not an undo button. Plan with the map and Route Evaluation before you commit.