The Complete Beginner's Guide to MyFly Club

MyFly Club (MFC) is a deep, realistic airline management simulation where you build and grow your own virtual airline. It's harder than most airline tycoon games — going bankrupt is not unusual, and even veteran players sometimes have to start over. Don't worry, you aren't the only one.

This guide will walk you through every stage of the game, from picking your first airport to running a global network, with accurate, up-to-date mechanics for MyFly Club specifically.

It is recommended that you explore all the menu tabs in the left sidebar (World Map, Flights, Airplane, Office, Leaderboards, Bank, Oil, Rivals, Alliance, Country, Olympics) to get a feel for the game before diving in.

1. Choosing Your Airline Business Model

When you create your airline in MyFly Club, you will be prompted to choose one of 6 airline business models. This is a critical early decision that shapes your entire playstyle. Each model has different strengths, weaknesses, cost modifiers, and progression tracks.

Model	Playstyle	Key Characteristics
Discount Airline	Low-cost carrier	Lower fares, high volume, only economy seats allowed, lower operating costs
Luxury Startup	Premium-first airline	Highest quality standards, premium-only cabins, quality-based reputation
Regional Partner	Short-haul regional focus	Only regional planes, cheap costs for high-frequency flights, small planes limit capacity; best for dense short-haul networks
Mega HQ	Dominant hub airline	Powerful HQ bonuses, strong for single hub growth
Legacy Carrier	Network and alliance-focused	A bit of everything, but earning reputation is arguably harder, cooperation with alliance airlines is effectively essential

Beginner Recommendation: If you are completely new, Discount Airline or Regional Partner are the safest choices. Discount carriers do not have to worry about the multi-class dynamics, and they can remain profitable even with cheaper ticket prices. Regional airlines are highly flexible, and their vast spread and small-plane focus gives them plenty of options to turn a profit, even at crowded airports.

You are encouraged to avoid Mega HQ or Luxury Startup for your very first airline, as they require more experience to manage effectively.

2. Selecting a Location (Your HQ Airport)

Three main factors determine whether a location is good: demand, reputation potential, and competition. As a new player, you want a balance — enough demand to make money, but not so much competition that established airlines crush you.

Airport Tiers in MyFly Club

MyFly Club uses a color-coded airport system to help you understand what you're dealing with at a glance:

Icon	Airport Type	Characteristics
🟢 Gateway	Country's main international airport	Strong international connectivity, easier to manage, but often fierce competition
🔵 Large	Major airport	Good demand, reasonable starting point, typically high competition, reasonable international demand
🟡 Small	Smaller regional airport	Generally lower competition, limited infrastructure, may not support large-scale growth
🔴 Domestic	Domestic-only airport	Limited to regional flights, international routes restricted or impossible

What to Look For

When picking your HQ, consider these factors:

Population — Larger population = more base demand. For example: Alicante > Granada.
Charms — Small icons under the city name that benefit certain travel types. For economy, tourist charms (camera icon) are most beneficial. For premium, business and elite charms matter more.
Runway length — It is advised not to start at an airport with a runway shorter than 2500m. Short runways restrict which aircraft you can operate, severely limiting your options.
Competition — Check the airport's current competition level. As a new airline, you cannot outcompete established players from day one.
Nearby airports — Nearby airports can bring connecting (indirect) demand, but they also bring competition. Check the transit connections!

TL;DR — Where Should You Start?

Pick a medium-sized airport with moderate demand and low competition. A large or gateway airport in a secondary city (not the biggest hub) is ideal. For example, compare:

Ottawa: Scale 6, lower competition, 2.2M population, 3 nearby airports → Good for economy-heavy strategy
Calgary: Scale 7, more business/elite demand, 2M population → Better for a future premium pivot

The game models real life — places where commercial aviation is well-developed in the real world are generally easier to play. For example: South Africa > Zambia.

Regional Strategies

High-income, high-competition regions (USA, Western Europe, Japan):

Strong demand but dominated by established airlines
Not recommended for your very first airline
Better to start elsewhere, earn money, and rebuild/relocate here later

High-demand, lower-income regions (China, India, Brazil, Southeast Asia):

Very high demand volume, lots of underserved routes outside of the main cities (i.e. gateways, large hubs)
Budget airlines tend to succeed here, but that sector may be highly competed
Lower reputation per passenger, but faster cash accumulation
Good for earning money early; relocate later for reputation

Underserved regions (parts of South America, Africa, Central Asia):

Low competition, but limited demand and often short runways
Africa has many gateway airports (reputation bonus) but strong competition and limited international transfer possibilities
Can work with the right strategy, but generally harder

The optimal early strategy is to start in a demand-rich area with manageable competition, fly lots of profitable routes, and then rebuild your airline to a more competitive hub once you've accumulated enough cash.

3. Starting Off

Important Notes

It is normal to lose money at first. Don't panic. Your flights won't reach full capacity immediately — you need to wait for passenger awareness to build up at your HQ before passengers start using your airline consistently.

If you compete against an established airline at a high-income airport, you may lose even with better service and lower prices. This is because the other airline has more loyalty. Loyalty is earned over time through high passenger satisfaction, and new airlines start with zero. Be patient.

Follow these steps in order:

Configure Your Office

Go to the Office tab and set these critical options:

Employee Quality — This affects your company-wide employee quality, which contributes 30% of your route quality. A target of around 35–50 is reasonable for a new airline. Note that the level increases gradually, so it will take some time until you reach your desired level.
Auto Airplane Replacement — This controls when your aircraft are automatically replaced as they age. For new airlines, set this to around 40%. This means aircraft are replaced when their condition drops to 40%, balancing cost and reliability.
Minimum Renewal Balance — You may want to set a minimum cash balance so you don't accidentally spend your last dollar on a replacement. This is not very important, though.

Select Your First Aircraft

For a new airline, smaller aircraft are almost always better. They match early demand more closely, allow higher frequency, and reduce the risk of low load factor.

Recommended starting aircraft:

Discount:

Tupolev Tu-154
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50
Dassault Mercure

Regional:

McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10
Sud Aviation Caravelle III

To browse aircraft: Go to the Airplane tab, click Market, and sort by price (default) or use the Family filter to view aircraft by manufacturer. After clicking on a plane model, you can also check the Used Airplane Market on the lower right corner. Planes with a green-coloured price offer good discounts, but remember that these will be used planes with a shortened remaining lifespan.

Seat configuration: Initially, stick with an all-economy configuration. Premium cabins require more strategy and resources to be profitable.

Upgrade Your HQ

You start with a level 1 HQ, which severely limits your operations — you can only easily operate flights with low frequency. Going beyond a soft cap of ~5 frequency per route will drastically increase the action points required to negotiate additional slots.

To upgrade your HQ: Select your HQ on the World Map and click the Upgrade button. Each upgrade increases your base's capacity, but also its weekly upkeep cost. As you upgrade, you may need to assign managers to support the operations of your base. To do this, you can click on "Regulatory status" and assign managers as needed.

Upgrade your HQ gradually — don't overextend on base costs before your routes are generating income.

Create Your First Route

To create a route: 1) Go to the World Map and click on a destination airport. 2) Click "Plan Route" to open the route creation panel. 3) Select your aircraft model and assign it to the route. 4) Set the frequency (number of flights per week). Start with a modest frequency that matches demand. Every "ball" indicates a return flight (counted as one frequency, but consisting of two legs) 5) Set service quality — 1–2 stars is fine for economy-focused new airlines. Higher service costs more money. 6) Set ticket prices — If the route is uncompeted, start at the default (100%) price. You can drop prices slightly to attract more passengers if the flights are not filling.

Route quality breakdown (important to understand):

Your route's overall quality is determined by:

Service stars on the route — 30%
Aircraft age (condition) — 20%
Aircraft "Passenger Experience" rating — 20%
Company-wide employee quality — 30%

Higher quality makes your route more competitive and attracts more passengers, especially business and elite travelers.

Join the MyFly Club Discord

The MyFly Club community is most active on the official Discord server: https://discord.gg/e6VgGswVep

You can ask questions, get advice from experienced players, find alliances, and stay up to date on game changes. It's the single best resource for learning the game fast.

Wait and Let Awareness Build

After launching your first route, wait a few hours (or even a day) for awareness to build up. Passengers don't instantly know about your airline — they discover it over time. Your load factor will improve as awareness grows.

Use this time to plan your next moves, study the interface, and read up on game mechanics.

4. Early Game

Make More Routes

Once your first route is profitable, expand:

Add frequency on your best route before opening new ones.
Open a second route to a different destination from your HQ.
Monitor performance — check load factor, profit, and demand regularly.
Add routes gradually — don't open too many at once.

Good early routes typically:

Connect medium-to-large airports
Have moderate distance (short to medium haul)
Support consistent demand
Have limited competition

Operate Intercontinental Routes

Once you can afford long-range aircraft, intercontinental (IC) routes are highly profitable:

They have less competition than domestic routes
They earn significantly more revenue per passenger
They often have much more demand than what's shown as "direct demand" (due to indirect/transit demand)

They are essential for long-term growth

However:

The aircraft required are very expensive
IC flights use a lot of staff (increasing labor costs)

Don't make too many IC routes at once — it's better to increase capacity on existing profitable IC routes first

Buy Bigger Planes

When your flights start hitting high load factors consistently, it's time to upgrade:

Replace small aircraft with larger ones on routes where demand exceeds your current capacity.
Don't oversize — if your frequency drops below ~7 per week, business passengers may not fly with you because they value schedule flexibility.

The general rule: increase frequency first, then increase aircraft size. A route with 14 flights/week on a 50-seat plane is often better than 7 flights/week on a 100-seat plane, because the higher frequency attracts more passengers.

Build a Base

When your HQ is level 3–5 and you have stable income, consider opening a base at another airport. Bases allow you to operate aircraft from multiple locations, dramatically expanding your network.

To build a base: Assign a manager to the target country via the Country tab. Go to the airport on the World Map, click View Airport, then Build Base. Bases are not as powerful as HQs — they don't get the same reputation bonus, and they have reduced staff capacity.

When to build a base:

Your current base is saturated (most good routes are taken)
Your base upgrade costs are too high
You want to expand geographically (e.g., to another continent)
You have sufficient aircraft and financial stability
You've confirmed the new base has good demand potential

Join an Alliance

Alliances are crucial for long-term success. Being in an alliance provides:

Codeshare passengers — Passengers from alliance airlines are more likely to transfer to your flights, boosting indirect demand.
Reputation bonus — Alliances with 3+ members get a reputation boost based on ranking.
Advice from experienced players — This is perhaps the most valuable benefit for new players. Alliance mates can help you avoid costly mistakes.
Strategic coordination — Coordinate routes to maximize connecting traffic.

How to join:

a) Ask in the Discord server (alliance channel)
b) Check the Alliance tab in-game
c) Look for newbie-friendly alliances that have relaxed requirements and open spots

Participate in the Olympics

MyFly Club features an Olympics system accessible through the medal icon 🏅 in the left sidebar.

1) If a warning icon appears next to the Olympics button, it means you can vote for a city to host the Olympics.
2) After the voting cycle ends, claim your free reward — typically a cash bonus, extra action points, or a loyalty bonus at the winning city's airport.

You get the reward even if you didn't vote for the winning city, so vote for whichever city you prefer.

The Olympics generate a temporary surge of demand and competition at the winning city for four in-game years (around 2 days).

Olympic passengers carried by your airline count as points for your airline's Olympics score. If a passenger's trip spans multiple airlines, points are assigned to all carriers involved.

5. Mid Game

Expand into a Big Airport

By mid-game, lack of reputation can stall your growth. After establishing 1–2 bases, you should expand into new, larger airports to boost your reputation.

Why big airports matter:

They often attract more reputation, as more passengers fly through
Gateway airports typically process the highest passenger volumes, resulting in a reputation gain bonus

The reputation you gain at an airport depends on: loyalist count, airport size, local income level, gateway status, and charms

Strategy: Start in a demand-rich, lower-competition area → earn cash → rebuild/relocate to a big, strategically located competitive airport once you have the resources to compete.

Add Business and First Class Seats (except for Discount airlines)

When your airline is small and quality is low, attracting business and elite passengers is very difficult. But as you grow and dominate airports, premium cabins become extremely profitable.

Business class passengers:

Less price-sensitive than economy travelers
Prefer high-frequency, high-quality routes
Generate more revenue per seat than economy

First class passengers:

The least price-sensitive
Expect the highest quality and service
Generate the most revenue per seat
Require strong reputation and lounges to attract consistently

To configure premium seats: Go to the Airplane tab and select an aircraft model. Click Config to create or edit a seating configuration. Adjust the economy/business/first class seat split. Assign the new configuration to specific aircraft.

Lounges

Lounges are facilities that reduce the perceived price for business and first class passengers, making your premium offerings more attractive without actually lowering your fares.

Key facts about lounges:

Each business/first class passenger has a different expectation for the lounge level (1–4). More demanding passengers require higher-level lounges.
Lounges are only effective up to the passenger's required level — a level 3 lounge doesn't help much for passengers who only expect level 1.

Lounges are useless for economy passengers.

You need your base to be scale 3 or higher to build a lounge.
Lounges are ineffective if either the departure or arrival airport is scale 3 or less.
Your alliance partners can also use your lounge, just like in reall life!

Remember: lounges cost hundreds of thousands per week, depending on the airport's income level, so be sure your premium traffic justifies the cost before building one.

Oil Contracts and Fuel Strategy

Fuel is one of your largest operating costs. The Oil tab lets you manage fuel strategically.

How it works:

Oil prices fluctuate over time, shown on the price history chart.
The blue line shows the average market price.
You can sign fuel contracts to lock in current prices for a set duration and volume.

Flight fuel costs use a normalized $70 base cost, and don't include fuel contracts — your contracts provide savings on top of this.

When to buy oil contracts:

Buy when oil prices are below the average (below the green line).
Maximize both volume and contract duration for the best savings.
Bulk-buying fuel is very expensive upfront — don't do this if you lack liquidity.
Any unused fuel at the end of a contract is sold at half price, so don't overbuy.

Inventory policy options range from conservative (shields from 90% of price fluctuation) to aggressive. For beginners, leave this on the default setting until you understand fuel dynamics.

Rebuild Your Airline

Rebuilding is NOT the same as declaring bankruptcy. Bankruptcy resets your entire account. Rebuilding converts your aircraft and bases into cash while preserving your reputation and loyalists.

Why rebuild?

It's the only way to move your HQ to a new airport.
Starting fresh at a major hub with a large cash reserve lets you grow faster than other airlines and more easily dominate airports.
Converting a domestic airline into an international/intercontinental powerhouse is a common and lucrative strategy.

You can find the "Rebuild Airline" option in the Office tab.

When to rebuild:

You've earned enough cash to compete at a bigger airport (a general guideline is several billion dollars).
Your current location is stalling due to low reputation potential.
You want to pivot your strategy (e.g., from budget to premium).

6. Advanced Game Concepts

Indirect Demand and Transfers

MyFly Club's passenger simulation is far more sophisticated than most airline games. Passengers don't just fly direct — they can transfer through multiple airports to reach their destination.

Example: A passenger wanting to travel from London to Sydney might go via Dubai if there are no direct flights. If your small airport has flights to underserved destinations, passengers from other airports may route through you, creating indirect demand that's invisible in the direct demand numbers.

What affects indirect demand:

Country openness — Countries with low openness restrict international-to-international transfers. A country with openness < 7 doesn't allow passengers to transfer between two different countries through its airports (though international-to-domestic transfers are still allowed).
Alliance codeshare — Alliance members share passengers, boosting indirect demand between allied airlines.
Airport connectivity — The more destinations an airport serves, the more useful it is as a transfer hub.

Strategic implication: Small airports can become high-traffic hubs if they serve underserved destinations with good connectivity. The classic example is an airport in a small country with high openness serving as a transit hub between continents.

Route Quality Formula

Understanding route quality is essential for competing against established airlines:

Overall Quality = (Service Stars × 30%) + (Aircraft Condition × 20%) + (Passenger Experience Rating × 20%) + (Employee Quality × 30%)

Factor	Weight	How to Improve
Service stars on route	30%	Increase in-flight service level (costs more per seat)
Aircraft condition (age)	20%	Replace aging aircraft; set auto-replacement threshold
Aircraft passenger experience rating	20%	Use newer/better aircraft models; configure seating for comfort
Company-wide employee quality	30%	Raise in the Office tab (increases labor costs)

Higher quality → more competitive → more passengers → more revenue. But quality costs money, so find the right balance for your airline model and stage.

Hub and Feeder Strategy

As you grow, a hub and feeder network becomes one of the most powerful strategies:

What it is:

A hub is a central airport where multiple routes converge.
Feeder routes bring passengers from smaller cities into the hub.
Passengers then connect from the hub to long-haul or major destinations.

Benefits:

Combines demand from many small markets into large, profitable routes
Higher load factors on hub routes
Better aircraft utilisation
Stronger market presence at the hub

How to build one:

Choose a central airport with good geography and strong demand
Add short-haul feeder routes with small, high-frequency aircraft
Add medium-haul routes to build connectivity
Introduce larger aircraft on the strongest routes
Add long-haul routes from the hub once you have enough feed

Hub vs. Point-to-Point:

Strategy	Pros	Cons
Hub & Feeder	Higher long-term potential, better aircraft utilization	More complex, requires careful scheduling
Point-to-Point	Simple to manage, easy to start	Limited growth potential, less network effect

Most successful airlines eventually adopt a hub strategy as they scale. If you prefer a point-to-point network, this strategy works best with regional carriers.

8. Common Beginner Mistakes

Mistake	Why It Hurts	What to Do Instead
Buying aircraft that are too large	Low load factor, high costs, unprofitable	Match aircraft size to route demand
Expanding too quickly	Spreads resources thin, increases costs	Grow one route at a time
Overpricing tickets	Reduces demand, low load factor	Start competitively, adjust based on data
Ignoring load factor	Empty seats = wasted money	Monitor and adjust capacity/pricing
Opening too many routes at once	Low frequency on each, poor performance	Focus on fewer, stronger routes
Starting at a hyper-competitive airport	Crushed by established airlines with loyalty	Choose a balanced airport to start
Taking loans early	Interest payments can bankrupt new airlines	Stay debt-free until you understand cash flow
Ignoring runway length	Can't operate larger aircraft when needed	Start at airports with 2,500m+ runways
Not monitoring performance	Problems spiral out of control	Check Office stats weekly
Setting service quality too high too early	Costs eat into slim early profits	Start low, increase gradually

9. Need Help?

Discord Server — The best place for help: https://discord.gg/e6VgGswVep

Official Knowledge Base — https://myfly.club/kb/

In-game Alliance channels — Alliance mates are often the best source of real-time advice

FAQ — Check the Knowledge Base's Frequently Asked Questions section

MyFly Club is a free, open-source community project with no ads and no pay-to-win mechanics. All players have the same tools and conditions. If you'd like to support the developers, consider becoming a Patreon — Patreon supporters get cosmetic perks (like renaming their airline monthly) but no gameplay advantages.

This guide was written for new players starting their MyFly Club journey and reflects the game's mechanics as of June 2026. The game is actively being developed and balanced — check the changelog for the latest updates.