The Airport Manager is, as his title suggests, the person responsible for managing his airport. This includes making sure the airlines operating out of his airport are not causing him too much trouble! His main task is to hold a daily meeting with airline managers representing airlines operating out of his airport.
The Airport Manager holds a meeting first thing every morning with all airline managers operating out of the airport. Regular meetings can be skipped, but you'll miss out on important information about how well their airlines are performing overall and by comparison to fellow competitors. Some meetings cannot be skipped including: meetings where airline managers are declared winners of a mission campaign, meetings where an airline manager is fined for sabotage, and meetings to announce an airline going out of business.
He will voice his displeasure whenever an act of sabotage is committed by an airline manager. And if he has discovered the perpetrator of sabotage, he will hold a mandatory meeting for all airline managers and fine the one responsible.
The Airport Manager's office can be found one the upper or office level of the airport. Its shortcut key is: U.
Airline Tycoon[]
In Airline Tycoon, the Airport Manager's name is: Mr. Uhrig, and his office is located just to the left of the Route Management Board, above the entrance to the Petrol Air backroom. In case you've forgotten the objective of a mission campaign, you can ask Mr. Uhrig to reiterate it for you.
Bidding for Branches and Gates[]
Aside from meetings and being able to directly speak to Mr. Uhrig, his office serves only one additional main purpose: silent auctions. Silent auctions allow airline managers to bid for branches and gates (more on gates in the next section, "Airport Expansion"). To join in on the action, click on the bulletin board and click on the square piece of paper with the name of the branch you would like to bid on. Airline managers can bid on as many branches as they would like. Just don't forget that others can walk in at any time and place a higher bid. Those who have placed bids will receive a fax the following morning in their office informing them of the branches and gates they've won and lost in the auction. Branches won in the auction can then be contacted by phone for additional passenger order flights and (in the case of Airline Tycoon Deluxe) cargo order flights.
Airport Expansion[]
Besides holding regular meetings, you can also ask Mr. Uhrig to expand the airport by adding one additional check-in desk and gate. The airline making the request must contribute $1,000,000 to the cost of expansion. The check-in desk and gate combination will then proceed to the bidding process the day after the acceptance of the request for expansion. The bidding process for gates is the same as the one for branches. The airline with the highest bid will be rewarded the gate (and corresponding check-in desk) the day after the auction for that gate.
Only one expansion can be performed at any given time. Mr. Uhrig will only grant the first request on the ninth day of the mission or freeplay. Additional requests for expansion will only be considered approximately nine days after the previous expansion. For environmental reasons, Mr. Uhrig will not consider any more expansion requests beyond a certain number of expansions.
Airline Tycoon 2[]
In Airline Tycoon 2, the Airport Manager's name is: Sig. Marco Usceroni (who interestingly enough resembles Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather and is the Godfather of Mr. Uhrig.), and his office is located just to the right of the elevator and to the left of the Advertising Agency, down a hallway next to a plaque labelled, "Manager".
As with Mr. Uhrig, you can ask Sig. Usceroni about how your airline fairs compared to the competitors, especially with respect to a mission objective.
The only other main purpose for Sig. Usceroni and his office is to access the Route Management Board. To do so, tell Sig. Usceroni: "I'd like to manage my routes". The alternative is to simply press the shortcut key, R, regardless of your avatar's location.