Players now have more control than ever over their airports with Cities: Skylines – Airports Expansion DLC. Learn here about the best ways to level up your airport in the least amount of time so you can get the most out of your city.
Cities: Skylines has always given builders extensive control over the operations of their urban creations. Despite this great power over city functions, airports have always seemed a bit neglected with few options for customization. There was previously little more available than the ability to place a premade building and runway while being able to modify some minor details about its operations.
With the release of Cities: Skylines – Airports Expansion DLC, players now have extensive control over the layout, size, and appearance of their airports as well as vastly increased options for control of operations. To get the most out of the Airports Expansion DLC, players will need to upgrade their airport from Level 1 to Level 3, unlocking new features and more options along the way. Here is the best way to level up your airport in Cities: Skylines – Airports Expansion DLC so you can maximize your airport’s impact on your city.
The Basics of Leveling Your Airport
The minimum you need to do to make your airport successful is similar to any other service in your city. If you ensure that your airport is accessible and functioning properly, then you will reach the max level eventually. However, there is much more you can do to expedite your progress and speed through the process of leveling.
Attractiveness is the Key to Leveling Airports Fast
Beyond merely operating, your airport’s progress is measured by two important metrics: passenger count and attractiveness. These can be found by clicking on your airport and viewing the info tab, which has been updated by the DLC with additional information.
The best strategy to level these up is to focus on your airport’s attractiveness, as this will naturally lead to an increase in your passenger count.
One of the most obvious and straightforward ways to boost your airport’s attractiveness is to spruce up the surrounding area. As always, many buildings have an attractiveness score. The attractiveness scores of nearby buildings combine with the attractiveness provided by parts of your airport (i.e. control towers) towards your progress, so it’s important to make sure your airport looks good inside and out.
Unique buildings and monuments are easy ways to get small attractiveness boosts. An even better way to increase attractiveness is to place airport hotels nearby. These provide substantial increases to your attractiveness that grow even better as you level your airport and unlock improved amenities.
Location is the Key to Attractiveness
Further strategic thinking can really boost your airport’s success and maximize its level in no time. This is where making sure your airport is a well-planned hub rather than a poorly placed afterthought is especially important!
Local Traffic and Transportation Helps Level Airports Quickly
Most people are traveling through airports rather than to them, so it is critical that yours is accessible by both public and private transportation. Like with any service in your city, it won’t get used it if it’s inconvenient or can’t be reached.
The classic pain of traffic management is crucial to your airport’s progress, as are considerations about public transportation like trains and taxis. Make sure your traffic is running smoothly and your airport can be reached by various transportation options to enhance your attractiveness score and passenger count.
Policies are a reliable way of digging deeper into the details of your how your city functions to improve how it runs. A new way of managing traffic around your airports is the new rental car policy brought by the new DLC. This allows you to provide another transportation option for travelers, which can improve your airport’s attractiveness while also easing nearby congestion.
Nearby Entertainment Benefits Airport (and City) Progress
Making sure your airport is surrounded by entertaining activities can be one of the final pieces to optimizing your progress if done correctly. Airports placed in areas ripe with entertainment and tourism districts will level up much more quickly than those placed in bare and boring locations.
An easy, high-yield way to benefit from this is to place a nearby zoo. This will provide a large attractiveness increase to your airport while also benefiting your city’s overall tourism industry (which also affects your airport, which benefits your city, and so on).
These are the best ways to quickly level up your airport in Cities: Skylines – Airports Expansion DLC. If this guide was helpful for you, be sure to check out some of our other Game Guides.
Keyword: How to Best Level Up Your Airport in Cities: Skylines DLC