You need to create your airport’s ground network to basically function like one big, flowing circuit. Here in Cities: Skylines, runways and taxiways are treated as entirely one-way thoroughfares. This primarily has to do with how the runway/taxiway system works, as alluded to earlier. And, trying to reconfigure the remaining tiles to be compatible with the adjusted layout isn’t exactly what I would call straightforward. While you can rip up objects that you place if necessary, that does come at a cost.

Do you anticipate it turning into a major hub, or would you rather keep it more along modest side of things? Having this idea before you start placing concourse tiles and taxiways will ultimately help you to make better sense of your airport’s layout before it even begins. Seeing that space will more often than not be limited, you have to really think in your head what kind of airport you’re considering to build not just right there in the moment, but in the future. I quickly realized that accounting for all of these different cogs in the machine is way more of a process than I initially thought. This includes building a terminal and concourse, placing airplane stands (parking gates), and then assembling the surprisingly complicated network that is the runway and taxiway system. Once the groundwork is laid, then comes time to actually put together the airport itself. They’re expensive to build and maintain, so turning a profit is, of course, very necessary. Getting these key elements correct will make or break your airport’s level of efficiency.

So, just from these initial phases alone, you can see that a lot really goes into this new building process: finding suitable land, terraforming/landscaping it, and then connecting it to major transportation lines. The same rule of thumb should be applied to your virtual airport planning as much as possible. Many major airports in the real world are built away from a city’s heart, but features direct connections to population hubs.

City skylines international airport