Manual index

Building Your Airport6 min read

Saving, the cart & builds

One button closes the loop between designing and flying: Save & view cart. It always saves your layout first - your work is never lost - then shows exactly what the design costs before a single Aero moves.

Saving & the cart

Press Save & view cart and two things happen in order. First, your layout geometry is saved - runways, taxiways, aprons, placements, all of it. Then the cart modal opens, titled Save your airport, listing every charge your changes imply:

  • Material unlocks- first use of a surface you haven't unlocked (materials).
  • Paved area- the square metres of surface you've drawn beyond your free allotments.
  • Area-level upgrades - if you grew the buildable circle.
  • Objects- anything placed that you don't already own is bought automatically to cover the placement.

Below the line items you get a Total (estimate)and your balance shown before → after, so there's never a surprise on confirm.

The cart modal listing itemised charges with a total and balance
The cart: every charge itemised, balance before and after.

Paying

The confirm button reads the situation for you: it says Save when everything is free, and Save & pay Ⓐn when it isn't. If you can't cover the total, a Not enough Aeros notice links straight to your wallet - see Earning Aeros for how to fill it.

Build & sync runs the exact same cart, with one addition: after payment your design is queued for a build (the button reads ...& build). Use plain save while you're iterating; use build when you want the result in the sim.

The two-airport split

MSFS can only flatten an airport to one height. If two of your runways sit at very different elevations, the build has to create two airports - a second ICAO appears in-sim alongside the first. The cart warns loudly when this applies and requires an explicit checkbox acknowledgment before you can pay.

The build lifecycle

Track builds on the airport cards at Your airports. The status pill moves through:

Queued
Waiting for a build machine. A queue badge in the portal nav shows the depth, or your position as Build #N.
Running
Compiling your airport package right now.
Built
Done - ready to sync and fly.
Failed
Something went wrong; the card shows a Retry button. If retries don't clear it, see Troubleshooting.

Supporters'jobs enter a priority lane that build machines claim before standard jobs; within each lane it's first-come-first-served.

Airport cards on the portal with build status pills
Your airports: each card carries its build status.

After the build

When you queue a build you'll see Build queued, and a notification arrives on completion along with a Get the app to sync & fly CTA. If the companion app is installed, it picks up the fresh build automatically the next time MSFS is closed - the full pipeline is in Syncing to MSFS.

Iterate freely

Rebuilding after edits is free- you pay for what you add, never for compiling it again. Build as often as you like; many builders rebuild after every session. And once the field is something you're proud of, share it: Public airport pages.