Idle Tap Airport is a simulation idle mobile game by Neon Play. In the game, you manage and develop your very own airport.
Are you up for the logistic task of keeping everything running smoothly?
That’s exactly what you need to do in order to improve your airport and become the richest airport manager.
Idle Tap Airport is available on Google Play and the App Store.
There is more strategy to Idle Tap Airport than most other idles games, because of the logistical aspect.
You can’t just mindlessly upgrade the same thing over and over, as it will cause a blockage in the system, in the form of a queue.
Reducing queue time is a great thing, but if you do it too much in one place, it could cause a long queue somewhere else.
This guide aims to help new players progress smoothly in Idle Tap Airport.
Table of contents
- Bump up ticket prices
- How to avoid long queues
- Level up to unlock sections and upgrades
- Speed up security queue
- Add more destinations
- Buy and upgrade planes
- Optimize your arrivals section
- Do bus tours for extra cash
- Purchase another airport
Bump up ticket prices
There are many things to upgrade in Idle Tap Airport, but we recommend you start by bumping up ticket prices.
Not only will this upgrade boost your cash flow, but it will not cause any clogs in the system because of increased queue times.
Upgrading your ticket price doesn’t change the rate at which you get passengers through the airport.
To increase ticket prices for your destinations, go to the tickets section and tap the Destination button at the bottom of the screen.
Here you can increase the ticket value for each of your destinations.
In the beginning, you’ll only have one destination, so just increase the ticket value for that one.
How to avoid long queues
At some point, you have to start decreasing queue times by upgrading your security booth, passport check, etc.
However, because of the queue aspect of this idle game, upgrading queue times is not as simple as upgrading in other games.
You have to keep the entire passenger flow of your airport in mind when upgrading queue time at a booth.
For example, if you upgrade your security queue time too much, you end up creating a long queue at the boarding section because there aren’t enough plane seats, planes, and destinations.
Likewise, if you don’t have fast enough queue times at passport check at your arrivals section, your plane can’t take off as there is nowhere to drop off passengers after a flight.
So how do you avoid the problem of long queues?
Balance your queue time upgrades throughout your entire airport.
When you upgrade queue times or add a new booth somewhere, look at the sections after that.
Could an extra security booth create a clog at boarding?
Buy a new plane or add more seats to an existing one.
Has your extra plane or added seats cause a clog at passport check?
Upgrade queue times there or add another booth.
Using this method, your airport will be running smoothly in no time, and your earnings skyrocket!
Level up to unlock sections and upgrades
Whenever a passenger interacts with sections of your airport, you get a small amount of exp.
Over time, you’ll gather enough exp to level up, which comes with a bunch of benefits.
However, you have to press level up manually, otherwise, you’ll stay at the same level forever and lose out on all the benefits and further exp gain.
When you’ve gathered enough exp to level up, press the level up button in the top right corner of the screen.
Leveling up not only gives a nice chunk of cash, but you also unlock entire new sections of your airport at specific levels.
Furthermore, you have to reach a specific level to unlock many upgrades, such as adding a second and third security booth.
Having all sections and upgrades unlocked is essential if you wish to become the greatest airport manager.
Speed up the security queue
At any time at the beginning of the game, you’ll have an excess of passengers standing at the entrance of the airport.
These are the passengers you should prioritize after upgrading ticket value.
All these waiting passengers are stuck because you can’t process them through the security booth fast enough.
Therefore, you should put a lot of your cash into decreasing the queue time.
Later on, you’ll be able to add additional security booths, which increases the number of passengers you can process through security per minute tremendously.
Already at level 8, you can unlock another security booth, which you should do as soon as possible.
The second additional security booth is unlocked at level 20, so there’s no point to save up for that already, spend your cash on something else until you get near level 20.
Remember, when you purchase an additional security booth, you should immediately increase the queue size for it, as it starts at 1 right after you buy it.
Additionally, the first couple of additional queue slots are going to be very cheap, so there’s no point in not doing it.
Add more destinations
Adding more destinations to your airport is an excellent way to earn more cash in Idle Tap Airport.
When you add another destination by purchasing it through the destination button in the bottom menu, that destination now becomes part of the pool of destinations you can get.
The reason why adding a new destination is a great decision, is that ticket prices for more expensive destinations are much greater.
Furthermore, the ratio between ticket value upgrade cost and ticket value increase is much better for more expensive destinations.
This means you’ll get more for your cash by upgrading the destinations you’ve just purchased.
Buy and upgrade planes
After optimizing your security area and adding another booth, it’s time to buy and upgrade planes.
You can increase the number of seats in a plane by upgrading it through the bottom menu.
Each upgrade on a plane adds another seat to that plane.
Therefore, you should always compare the upgrade cost for all your planes, and upgrade the one with the lowest cost at the time to optimize your spending.
Like other upgrades, you unlock the ability to buy new planes at certain levels.
Whenever you do so, buy the plane if your passport control can handle it, and you have enough passengers going through security per minute.
New planes have a lot more seats to begin with than previous ones, and the cost to add new ones will be much lower right after buying them.
All in all, buying a new plane can seriously improve your cash generation if you have the capacity to process more passengers through the airport.
Optimize your arrivals section
The arrivals section at your airport is much more important than you might think.
In this area, passengers who’ve just landed need to go through passport check and then claim their baggage.
The problem is, if your passport booths can’t keep up with the number of passengers landing, no more planes can land before the queue is gone.
If no plane can’t land, no plane can take off, which means passengers will queue up in front of the plane boarding for a very long time.
While they are standing not being able to get on the plane, you get no cash at all.
Therefore, having a slow passport section will cut off your cash generation completely each time a plane or two has landed.
Because of this, you should always make sure your passport booths are up to speed.
Whenever you unlock a new passport booth, it’s almost always a great decision to purchase it immediately.
Do bus tours for extra cash
At level 8, you unlock the last section of your airport, bus tours.
Here, passengers leaving your airport can take a bus tour, which brings you in an extra chunk of cash.
It’s a great way to make more cash without having to worry about how upgrades there affect other sections, as the bus tour section is the last place passengers visit.
Therefore, we recommend you upgrade those bus tour tickets as much as you can when you get them, as well as increase the number of slots in the queue.
If a passenger comes out of your airport and sees the queue is full, they will just walk out, causing you to lose a potential bus ticket in revenue.
Purchase another airport
Like in many other idle games, you can, after reaching a certain point, start over with increased earnings.
In Idle Tap Airport, this phenomenon is known as buying a new airport.
To buy a new airport, press the globe icon on the right side of the screen and purchase the next airport.
Purchasing another airport does cost cash, and will cause you to start completely over, but does come with a nice earnings bonus.
The second airport, Paris, gives you a five times earnings bonus while Cape Town, the third airport, gives you a ten times earnings bonus.
With all these tips and tricks on Idle Tap Airport, you are sure to create a magnificent airport.
If you have any other tips or tricks on the game you believe other players should know, then you can leave them in the comment section below.
