Fortress Hub Basics
Core Concepts
Your airline is made of cash, gates, and routes. The Route Atlas shows these assets together so you can plan a network and see its current financial effect.
Airports
Fortress Hub has six shared airports: SFO, LAX, ORD, DFW, JFK, and ATL. Every airport starts small and can grow through Airport Expansion.
| Airport size | Size factor | Open gates | Maintenance per gate | Minimum gate bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1 | 3 | $1 | $1 |
| Medium | 2 | 6 | $2 | $3 |
| Large | 3 | 10 | $3 | $6 |
An airport is full when every gate currently open at that airport is owned. Full small and medium airports can be expanded. A large airport cannot be expanded further.
Gates
A gate is an airport asset owned by one airline or available for acquisition. A gate can be assigned to at most one route. An owned gate that is not assigned to a route is an unused gate; it remains on your books and still incurs maintenance.
You acquire an unowned gate through a gate auction, receive one of the new gates when you expand an airport, or receive a gate through a trade. You can also forfeit an unused gate for the fee listed in Costs and Profit Reference.
Routes
A route connects two distinct airports and uses one of your gates at each endpoint. Your airline can have at most one route between a given pair of airports. A route transfers with both endpoint gates when you trade it.
Each route has three factors:
- Size factor: the sum of the endpoint size factors, from 2 to 6.
- Competitive factor: the number of other airlines' routes between the same airports. The payoff uses 0, 1, or 2+ competitors.
- Network factor: the number of your routes touching each endpoint, counted together. The payoff uses factors from 2 through 7+, with anything above 7 treated as 7.
The route's operating profit is the intersection of those factors in the profit reference. A route with no competing airline route is a monopoly route. This is different from an airport monopoly, which means one airline owns at least six gates at that airport.
Network changes
Launching or closing a route, transferring a route, changing an airport's size, or removing an airline can change the factors and profit of several routes. The Atlas recalculates the network after each such change. Route operating profit is separate from gate maintenance: the airline pays maintenance for every owned gate, including both route endpoints and unused gates.