This is a strategy game inspired by the career of a well-known former airline tycoon. Your objective is to make enough money to take over British Airways. Why any normally greedy tycoon would want to take over BA is a mystery. The blurb asks you if you 'can be more successful than Sir Freddie.' From what I remember of his story, it shouldn't be difficult!
As the chairman of L-Air you begin with assets of £3 million and have seven years in which to increase them to £30 million and take over BA.
You are faced with some tricky decisions.
Do you buy or charter your planes? What level of staffing or maintenance do you provide? What kind of insurance is best? If for example, you
buy the wrong kind of insurance, you could find one of your planes hijacked and the company paying a ransom of 12 million from its own coffers.
The information to help you make these momentous decisions is contamed in a number of well-presented charts and diagrams. But your skill, or
lack of it, in interpreting this data doesn't seem to bear much relation to your position at the end of the game.
In my first year's trading I made a loss of £27,030 and, with remarkable similarity to Sir Freddie's own story. the receiver liquidated L-Air.
However, in my second year, although I was just as incompetent as in the first. I made a hefty profit. Luck, rather than judgement, is what makes a successful businessman in this simulation.