Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
The verdict on

Airport City Manager Simulator

40
User verdict / 100 High confidence Divided

Airport City Manager Simulator offers an engaging city-building and aviation management experience, but recent updates and long-standing issues with monetization, slow progression, and technical glitches are frustrating long-time players and new users alike.

4.6★ lifetime (60,001) Free + in-app purchases since 2012 by Game Insight UAB updated 0.4 mo ago recent negative 51% 120 reviews across 4 regions
Monetization & Progression Game Enjoyment Ads Recent Update Impact Technical Issues Customer Support
5★253
4★99
3★114
2★135
1★349
recent reviews across 4 regions, vs the 4.6★ lifetime average

Airport City Manager Simulator is a free-to-play game where players build and manage an airport and a surrounding city, appealing to aviation enthusiasts and those who enjoy strategic building games R2R5R21. However, recent reviews highlight significant issues with aggressive monetization, extremely slow progression, and technical problems like loading freezes and disappearing game progress.

What users like

  • Engaging city-building and aviation management gameplayR2R5R13R16
  • Optional ads for rewardsR5
  • Relaxing and helps with anxiety for some playersR21R29R38

What users complain about

  • Aggressive monetization and 'pay-to-win' mechanics make progression extremely slow without spending moneyR3R7R9R10
  • Recent update to 5-star mastery levels significantly increases grind and reduces sense of accomplishmentR1R6
  • Frequent and intrusive ads, including hidden ads and long unskippable onesR1R4R19R28
  • Technical issues including game not loading, freezing, disappearing progress, and stuck planesR11R12R35R49
  • Lack of meaningful new content or updates despite claims of fixesR1R31R43R48
  • Poor customer support, including being banned for asking questionsR48R49R68R77
  • Difficulty obtaining necessary items for upgrades and expansion, creating bottlenecksR17R32R50R53
  • High cost of in-game items like planes, land, and upgrades, with low returns on selling assetsR10R17R22R37
  • Lack of Chinese language support despite being advertisedR18R25R45R67

Latest update · v8.49.12

What the developer says changed (the verdict above weighs this against what reviewers report):

Pilots, it's time to set new goals and reach new heights! Mastery levels now consist of 5 stars. Launch flights, improve your skills, and earn rewards! Remember, there's no such thing as too many stars: not in the sky, not on your shoulder straps, not in mastering. We've also fixed a number of technical issues. Happy flying!

Recurring themes

Monetization & Progression negative
Many players feel the game is a 'money grab' or 'pay-to-win,' with extremely slow progress unless real money is spent. Costs for planes, land, and upgrades are high, and essential items are hard to obtain without purchases. This issue is a recurring complaint across many reviews, both recent and implied by older complaints, indicating a consistent design choice that frustrates players.R3R7R9R10
Ads negative
The game is criticized for an excessive number of ads, including intrusive pop-ups, hidden ads, and long, unskippable commercials. While some ads are optional for rewards, many appear during navigation or for basic tasks, severely disrupting gameplay.R1R4R19R28
Recent Update Impact negative
The latest update, which increased destination mastery levels from 3 to 5 stars, is a major point of contention. Players feel it removes the sense of accomplishment, significantly increases the grind, and forces them to re-do previously completed content, contradicting the developer's claim of 'reaching new heights'.R1R6
Technical Issues negative
Despite developer notes claiming 'technical issues' were fixed, many recent reviews report problems such as the game freezing, not loading past the splash screen, disappearing progress, and planes getting stuck. This indicates the fixes were either ineffective or introduced new bugs.R11R12R35R49
Customer Support negative
Several users report poor or non-existent customer support, with issues like lost progress, unaddressed bugs, and even being banned from social media for asking questions.R48R49R68R77
Game Enjoyment mixed
Despite the numerous complaints, many players still find the core gameplay fun, relaxing, and addictive, especially aviation enthusiasts. However, this enjoyment is often overshadowed by the game's monetization and progression issues.R2R5R13R16

Who it's for

This game is for aviation enthusiasts and players who enjoy city-building and management simulations and are willing to either invest significant time waiting or spend money to progress R2R5R21. It is not for players who dislike aggressive in-app purchases, frequent ads, or slow, grind-heavy progression R3R9R19.

Evidence note: The recent reviews skew heavily negative, with a 0.509 recent-negative signal. This contrasts sharply with the lifetime rating of 4.57852, suggesting a significant decline in user satisfaction, likely due to recent updates and persistent monetization issues. The evidence for negative points is strong and widely supported across many reviews.

Frequently asked

Is Airport City Manager Simulator a pay-to-win game?
Many recent reviews indicate that Airport City Manager Simulator has become a 'pay-to-win' game, where significant progress and advancement are extremely difficult or slow without spending real money on in-app purchases R3R9R24R47.
Are there many ads in Airport City Manager Simulator?
Yes, many players report an excessive number of ads in Airport City Manager Simulator, including intrusive pop-ups, hidden ads that appear during navigation, and long, unskippable ads that disrupt gameplay R1R4R19R28.
Does the latest update improve the game?
The latest update, which introduced 5-star mastery levels, is widely criticized by players for increasing the grind and diminishing the sense of accomplishment, rather than improving the game R1R6. Additionally, despite claims of technical fixes, many users still report ongoing issues like loading freezes and lost progress R11R12.
Is Airport City Manager Simulator available in Chinese?
Despite some indications or expectations, multiple reviews state that Airport City Manager Simulator does not currently offer Chinese language support within the game R18R25R45R67.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R2] 5/5 · US Yall should get this game: Im an avgeek, and it can be a bit triggering seeing 747 Concorde with Boom Overture engines, but this game is a vibe, five stars
  2. [R5] 5/5 · US great: Great for avgeeks, ads are optional! best. game. ever.
  3. [R13] 5/5 · US Awesome!!: I downloaded this app and I am attracted to it because of how much fun it is!
  4. [R16] 5/5 · US Great game: Love the game very fun and good graphic’s
  5. [R21] 5/5 · US Enjoyable: My 9yr old Grandson introduced me to airport city. I found it to be relaxing and engaging. Planning your expansion with the choice of different flights of space and air. A very peaceful experience. I highly recommend it. Grandpa
  6. [R29] 5/5 · US General talk: Hey there folks this is my Favorite game to play . Helps with anxiety! :) . Just zoning in and enjoy sending flights . Airplanes,helicopters,& Spaceships.! 🚀 and building a wonderful city making neighbors. Very competitive . They made a lot of new updates and the game has been running smoothly . There is always a event to look forward to☘️ I wonder if I get a new phone will my city s
  7. [R38] 5/5 · US Airport City: I really enjoy this game. I’ve been playing about 6 months now and I really can’t get enough of it. I can get off work and play for hours. It relaxes me.
  8. [R3] 1/5 · US Pay to win: I am a some one with child settings and it sad I can’t play this game even though I’ve had it for 5 years that makes no sense so that means this it pay to win because like I sad if played this game before and it is child friendly but now it’s more pay to win
  9. [R7] 4/5 · US Fun and Time consumer: You have to either pay right away to really advance or be okay waiting a few days before you really build up your wealth. I do like it though.
  10. [R9] 1/5 · US Ridiculously slow progress: Been playing for about 2 weeks and it’s become clear to me this just another money grab game, the concept and mechanics are fun, but the waiting and waiting is not for me.
  11. [R10] 5/5 · US Great game,But: I like this game and it is pretty good I’m not gonna lie to you but sometime the things are pretty costly like repairing the planes,upgrading the runways etc, I would be really happy if you guys just kept the cost of stuff low
  12. [R1] 2/5 · US End if an Era: I played this game for 10+ years and it’s time to hang it up. What was once a fun game to play and build has turned into a game that lacks creativity and meaningful reward. The ads are one thing but the recent switch from 3 stars per destination to 5 stars removed the sense of accomplishing something. I wish there was an upgrade that honored overflying these cities back when 3 stars
  13. [R6] 1/5 · US Stressful.: This latest update is the final nail for me. Over the many years playing I found myself feeling accomplished fully completing a destination and earning the stars/rewards. The developers have now added two extra sets of stars, some flights requiring over 1,000 completed flights. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Just when I thought I was progressing; I find myself having to return to small or sold of
  14. [R4] 3/5 · US Awesome game hooked for life… but the ads: Playing this game is fun it brings back the joy of having a game that is really fun to play and this is definitely my number one favorite game to play and also make the ads for the free stuff at the end of the ad there is no x to get off the ad and get the reward and it probably is going to take me at least 100 try’s so please. Fix the glitch
  15. [R19] 1/5 · US Too Greedy: Downloaded game about a year ago. Yes things were pricey but as updates came you had to watch a video every time you click to another screen. The prices you pay for things is outrageous compared to what you get for sending flights! Stay away from this game as all this is is a money grab! Also 2 minute ads? Ridiculous
  16. [R28] 1/5 · US Fun, but…: I very rarely write reviews on games, especially 1 stars, I believe devs always have a chance to make it up, but this game is ridiculous, played for about an hour and within that time I had so many ads for in app purchases that it covered up more than half my screen. I’m uninstalling immediately, there is no reason to advertise for n app purchases, especially not on the main screen to t
  17. [R11] 2/5 · US Frozen: I used to play this game years ago and decided to give it a try again, unfortunately the game is frozen with the only button available being the settings, other than that I can’t move or touch other buttons
  18. [R12] 2/5 · US Stuck loading: This is a very enjoyable game to play, but I cannot play it after the latest update. The screen stays “loading” after opening the app. Please fix this ASAP.
  19. [R35] 3/5 · US Airport city: I play every day but today game is not loading
  20. [R49] 1/5 · US No customer support: Planes disappeared 2 times and no customer support to help correct problem
  21. [R31] 1/5 · US Terrible Game: I have been playing it for several years not sure why you never have any updates. You’re wanting us to spend money but if you’re not doing anything to do updates, why would we want to give you money terrible game I will probably soon be quitting.
  22. [R43] 2/5 · US Worsening: Prices are doubling for events with no real updates. After level 55, the game levels out and requires $100’s a month to progress. Avoid avoid avoid.
  23. [R48] 1/5 · US Ads & Challenges: Overall it’s a fun game. The challenges haven’t changed in at least 2 years so it’s like Groundhog Day every year. Also, there are certain ads that if you click to watch, your phone is hijacked for over 2 minutes (unless you close and restart the app). Bring back the 30 second ads!! The feedback from the developer I received on Facebook for this was: blocked me for asking this qu
  24. [R68] 1/5 · US Don’t need support.: Support is a joke. I stopped spending after I was charged 4 times for the same pass and the remedy was 38 airport cash. I warned them if they treated me unfairly that I would never spend again. They did not care. And apple would only refund 1 of the 4 purchases. Apple should have a live chat option to explain the problem instead of the 3rd world chat service they run
  25. [R77] 1/5 · US Horrible game!: Used to be a fun interesting game however lately they have employed lengthy and tricky to advance through upgrade and incentive commercials. Add that with horrible game support and you have a recipe for a bad game.
  26. [R17] 5/5 · US Great game but: When playing this game you’re always constantly fighting for oil passengers or upgrades even when you do get your upgrades you still have to get the supplies to finish the upgrade meaning like helicopter blade, helmet, security sticks cameras also when you sell things you don’t get as much as you even paid for it. You get 200 bucks and you paid $12,000 for a plane then you are cons
  27. [R32] 2/5 · US Good game but..: This game is amazing, really fun just one problem that I hate is when you upgrade a building and you spend a lot of gold on upgrade it, you now have to find 30 Diffrent parts for the upgrade to happen. Like if I am going to spend that much gold to upgrade something at least take away the finding parts or make it cheaper
  28. [R50] 3/5 · US Fun game but……: A fun game to play, Easy to learn, always keeping you busy with different challenges, keeps you wanting to come back for more. But you get to a point where unless you start spending money it is almost impossible to advance. Items needed to upgrade buildings are almost impossible to find, and even after a week you cannot find what you need and have to buy it. If this was less of a m
  29. [R53] 1/5 · US Space Launch System (in-game) is very flawed: So I recently tried to launch a rocket in this game (Apogee Mission) and I ended up failing it because of their stupid system of launching a rocket. First, you have to build a launch pad and Mission Control Center as infrastructure, (which requires hard to obtain materials). Then, you have to gather up supplies to “launch”. After this, you can launch,
  30. [R22] 5/5 · US The money 💰 problem: When you buy a plane ✈️ you use TONS of coins and sometimes airport cash which is very hard to earn but when you sell a plane… you get nothing in return so I think you should just change that and get how much you spent on it otherwise if you accidentally sold a plane you can’t buy it back which is so bad I accidentally sold my condor and owl plane which sucks because the owl i
  31. [R37] 3/5 · US Cost too much…: Stuff costs too much takes forever to actual continue need to keep that in mind cuz it’s so much that the game begins to not be as fun so I don’t play it as often and eventually not at all
  32. [R18] 1/5 · US Where is the Chinese language: Where is the Chinese language · translated
  33. [R25] 1/5 · US Language: Hi~Is Very Good Game,Can I ask when have Chinese Language? Thank you Sir
  34. [R45] 4/5 · US Where is Chinese???: QAQ
  35. [R67] 1/5 · US we need chinese: we need chinese
  36. [R24] 3/5 · US Good Game: The game is fun. But you have to spend money to grow up
  37. [R47] 4/5 · US To much pay to win: Don’t get me wrong I love this game and I’ve played it forever but to make any serious upgrades or anything you have to pull out the credit card cause the prices just to buy more land to expand are outrageous, dont get me wrong I love the game but I hate that to actually get anywhere you ether waste your live away working for it or you grabbed the card

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store