First off, great game. Highly addicting! I'm looking forward to the update!
I have a few suggestions. The first is the most major, and the couple after that are probably minor fixes. Basically, the problem I'm having is that when it comes time to replace my fleet with new planes, there's nothing "new" to replace them with. It would be cool to see some type of fleet renewal program, but impossible to "invent" new Boeing and Airbus planes, and cheesy to make fake designs for the year 2035 or so and beyond.
Which is when it hit me--why not allow users to go back and start the game in 1965-1970 if they want, then add in aircraft from that time period. DC-8s, DC-9s, 707s, 720s, 727s, 737-200s, Caravelles, etc., then move forward through time to where the DC-10, 747 and L-1011 become available, then the MD-80 and 737-300/500 series, and on up into the airliners available in-game currently. You could also put a "used aircraft market" in-game, where players can get older airliners on the cheap, but they have shorter service lives and require more spending on maintenance (i.e., a new aircraft has a 30-year life in-game, but depending upon the age of the used aircraft being purchased, it may have a life of only 10 years). You could also, for the sake of realism, set it up so that airliners are only available to be purchased new up until a couple of years after their production in real life ended, but those designs would be available for a used-plane purchase for 20-30 years after production ends.
It doesn't exactly solve the problem of what to do once you're to the year 2030, and you have to replace your massive 737-800 fleet with, well, more 737-800s, but it would do wonders for replay value if players started out in the 1960s or '70s, and could build their fleets around different types of aircraft every time.
The other suggestions are, like I said, fairly minor compared to that. It would be cool if we had some kind of drop-down route menu, instead of having to scroll through all of our routes to get to one of them or select the two cities. Also, I'd love to see fuel consumption, maintenance costs and crew numbers for aircraft so that we have the added variable of (for example) the A320 being less-expensive than the 737-800, but the 737-800 having lower fuel consumption and maintenance costs. And, as has been mentioned before, bulk discounts for aircraft purchases would be very cool.
Like I said, though, it is a great game already, but a historical mode of play would just be beyond amazing!
That's an awesome idea. That would be great, another idea that would be awesome is another game mode. I was thinking of something where you start off with an airline that has been in business for some time and is in trouble or not doing so well, or just small, then your goal is to make it the number one airline. Example would be, you start the game and now you're the new CEO of ABC Airlines. ABC Airlines has a couple of hubs, but is not doing so well. They are number 2 or last in the world and your job is to make them number one.