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Airlines Europe

2-5 players 75-75 min 7.3 Board Game Geek Rating

Airlines Europe is a stock investment game where players acquire shares in airline companies expanding across Europe. On each turn, players either expand an airline's routes to claim stock, play shares for dividends, invest in Air ABACUS, or collect money. Victory comes from holding valuable airline stocks during randomly triggered scoring rounds, with airline values determined by their route networks.

Published 2011

Airlines Europe

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Lay out the board
Place the main board in the center and put all Victory Point (VP) tokens nearby
2
Organize airplane pieces
Separate all plastic planes by color near the board
3
Prepare the share deck
Set aside the 3 scoring cards from the Grey-back cards, then shuffle the remaining deck
4
Place Air Abacus deck
Put the Red-back Air Abacus share cards face-up near the board (no shuffling needed)
5
Position airline markers
For each color still in the game, place that airline's 2 markers on their matching Home Airport and on the score track
6
Place bonus tiles
Put the 4 Bonus Connection tiles (Orange, Green, Grey, White) on their matching map locations
7
Determine turn order
Choose a 1st player; 1st/2nd/3rd/4th/5th players receive 1/2/3/4/5 VP tokens respectively
8
Create the bank
Place 30 million Euros per player into the bank reserve
9
Distribute starting money
Give each player 8 million Euros
10
Select starting shares
All players simultaneously choose 2 cards of different colors from their hand, place them face-down, then reveal and announce them to form their starting Portfolio

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Choose one action
Select exactly one of four possible actions to perform on your turn
2
Select an airline
Choose any airline with at least 1 plane piece remaining in supply
3
Place the plane
Put 1 plane onto any numbered route line space following placement rules
4
Optional second license
You may buy a second route license (same or different airline) following all rules above
5
Draw one card
After placing planes, draw exactly 1 share card (not Air Abacus) from the selection row or deck top
6
Choose play option
Either play 2 different colored share cards OR play any number of cards of 1 color
7
Organize your portfolio
Overlap shares of the same color for space efficiency
8
Collect dividends
Take 2 million Euros from the bank for each card played
9
Note importance
Cards in hand are worth nothing; only portfolio shares count for scoring
10
Trade one card
Discard 1 share card face-down to the box (without revealing) to take 1 Air Abacus card into your hand
11
Trade three cards
Discard 3 share cards face-down to the box (without revealing) to take 2 Air Abacus cards into your hand
12
Collect money
Take 8 million Euros from the bank
13
Trigger scoring
When a scoring card is drawn (refilling selection row or from deck), pause the game
14
Assign scoring card
If drawn to refill the row, give it to the next player; if drawn by a player, that player keeps it and draws another card
15
Draft cards
Starting with the player holding the scoring card and going clockwise, each player takes 1 card from the selection row
16
Discard leftovers
Remove remaining selection row cards and the scoring card to the box; refill to 5 cards
17
Score each airline
Evaluate each airline one by one based on their score track position

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
End game trigger
The game ends after the 3rd scoring phase is completed
2
Calculate final scores
Players add up all their VP tokens
3
Determine winner
The player with the most VP wins the game
4
Break ties
If tied, the player with the most Air Abacus shares in their portfolio wins

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

Airlines Europe (gioco da tavolo) - Tutorial italiano

Airlines Europe (gioco da tavolo) - Tutorial italiano

Instructional

Airlines Europe: Run-through: Economic Board Games

Airlines Europe: Run-through: Economic Board Games

Instructional

MORE VIDEOS

FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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