- v21-pre1 - 21 September 2026
v21-pre1 Features New home region rule to fix AI spaghetti routes. New game rule, new UI in-game. Game is now won by accumulating 1,000 points. You get points per home region that you lead. New bird, the Owl, that takes the lead in regions faster. Spending ~4 quarters in a row with negative cash now bankrupts major airlines. Can now move the map with arrow keys. Long route lines now arc higher over the globe than before. Trunk routes are now thicker, and also brighter. Split the world into more smaller regions for the new home region gameplay. Added approximately 250 new cities, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Changes Route lines are now drawn in each airline's color by default. Lots of AI improvements, and changes to make them work with the new home region system. Regional airlines now tend to start in larger regions. Major airlines now start in unique regions. AI will now se…
- v20.2 - 21 August 2026
v20.2 FeaturesCity connection screen reworked; should better explain the demand to other cities. Route screen now shows the load factor, a.k.a. what percent of seats on the route's flights are occupied. ChangesCongestion is now measured only against the queue capacity of airlines who actually operate at the airport. Since congestion drives demand suppression, expect stronger suppression at hubs now. This will change how the game plays, so feedback appreciated here. The Congestion tooltip now shows each queue's fill against its own capacity (for example 208/204, overflowing) instead of its share of all queued passengers. Renamed "Throughput usage" to "Boarding throughput" to clarify that it specifically measures how fast that passengers who are already at an airport can board their planes. Load factor and AI fleet planning now use actual empirical flight data to more intelligently estima…
- v20.2-pre3 - 13 August 2026
FeaturesCity connection screen reworked; should better explain the demand to other cities.Route screen now shows the load factor, a.k.a. what percent of seats on the route's flights are occupied.ChangesYou can now 'ignore' contracts to get them off your screen.Route screen overall on-time rate has been demoted to a badge.Load factor and AI fleet planning now use actual empirical flight data to more intelligently estimate load.BugfixesFixed an old bug that made planes taxi for longer than intended. Let me know if your planes are turning around too fast now.Fixed another old bug so that now planes who wait overnight to take off can take off right at 5:00 AM.Fixed a bug where you could get building contracts for super expensive things, basically trapping you into failure.Fixed a bug where autobalance would send your plane to the hangar if a competitor was losing money on that route.Fixed a…
- v20.2-pre2 - 3 August 2026
v20.2-pre2 Features Plane models can now be retired at a specific quarter via ObsoleteAfterQuarter. Changes New Regulatory Complaints game rule to disable these. Core game data now ships as readable JSON files in the game's install folder under StreamingAssets/Defines, so modders can use them as reference files. Optimizations Removed some unused files from the game install. Bugfixes Fixed plane models not going obsolete after save reload Fixed AI airlines forgetting to undermine rival favor after save reload Fixed the government instantly allowing new airlines to enter the market after save reload Fixed issue with loans sometimes not paying off. Fixed issue where planes would not age off the used market. Fixed math issues that were causing the Puffin/Dove income perks to not work properly. Fixed stock some issues with stock prices not recovering quickly after crashes. Fixed the AI somet…
- v20.2-pre1 - 12 July 2026
v20.2-pre1 This is a preview patch, so you must be on the PREVIEW branch to try it. Changes Congestion is now measured only against the queue capacity of airlines who actually operate at the airport. Since congestion drives demand suppression, expect stronger suppression at hubs now. This will change how the game plays, so feedback appreciated here. The Congestion tooltip now shows each queue's fill against its own capacity (for example 208/204, overflowing) instead of its share of all queued passengers. Renamed "Throughput usage" to "Boarding throughput" to clarify that it specifically measures how fast that passengers who are already at an airport can board their planes. Improved changelog Experimental Experimental mod support (proof of concept, may break in future updates). You can drop JSON files into the Mods folder next to your saves to add custom airports and plane models to new…
- v20.1 - 10 July 2026
The improved Suppressed Demand tooltip and info badge.Changes- Manufacturers are now much more responsive about opening new production lines when their backlog grows. - New lines are triggered by how many days of work are queued instead of raw plane count. This should help esp. with slower-to-build planes like the PAX series. - New lines also go to the model with the longest queue in days of work instead of the most planes.- Overhauled the Suppressed Demand badge. See the screenshot!- AI airlines are now much less aggressive about opening new routes if their existing network is struggling. - AI stops opening new routes while more than 10% of its routes are congested.- The airport Congestion tooltip now shows whose fault it is. Maybe it's your competitor's preferred queue!Bugfixes- Fixed passengers who prefer an airline that doesn't fly their route waiting instead of just boarding a comp…
- v20: The Standby Update - 22 June 2026
Passenger CongestionIntroducing passenger congestion. Passengers no longer despawn; instead, airports have a maximum capacity (both a preferred cap for your airline, as well as an open cap for all airlines). There are new demand suppression ramps that reduce passenger spawns when their route (origin, destination, or intermediate airports) is congested. Higher tier passengers, e.g. business or luxury, will downgrade to worse seats after ~24h, booting out comfort and budget passengers.Bottom line: the game loop around pax accumulation and throughput management should be tighter.Legible demandThe connections view was reworked to expose the core underlying demand between all unlocked city pairs, which should make it more useful. Additionally, statistics surrounding suppressed demand, give-up rate, etc. should be more legible. Overall, it should be easier for players to figure out which city…
- Help playtest the next version! - 25 April 2026
We've got some big changes coming!Regional networks should be more viable. City proximity is now the main demand factor. For example, pax generation on SFO-LAX was massively buffed. I also surface each city's demand score in the Connections view in case you want to help me tweak the algorithm further.Passengers don't despawn anymore. Yes, this is a big change. Passengers have always despawned. Even when I was first prototyping this game a little over two years ago (wow, time flies huh). Now, airports have capacities (split into per-airlined preferred caps, and a shared open cap). Overflow now more transparently counted as lost demand and surfaced in the Connections view.Delivery rate gone, replaced with "% on time". This is a necessary change because we got rid of pax despawning so, well, delivery rate doesn't really make sense anymore. Instead, pax who wait more than 24h will count as…
- v19.3 - 20 November 2025
v19.3 Bugfixes: - Fixed bug where players would be unable to join a multiplayer game if the savefile was big. - Fixed bug where airlines would not get money if they were forced to sell shares. - Fixed bug where bulk order button would become clickable before you could actually afford it.
- v19.2 (some more small tweaks) - 17 November 2025
Changes: - Clicking on an airline's avatar in the route GUI will now navigate to that airline's stock trading view. - Aircraft will now show 'Repairing' if they are repairing, to better inform players that they may need to build more hangars. - Stale events will no longer show on game load. Bugfixes: - Fixed bug where AI would sometimes try to buy shares in dead airlines. - Fixed bug where there were some blank tooltips in the stock trading view.
- v19.1 (small bugfixes) - 16 November 2025
Thank you to everyone who decided to try out the game today during the DAILY DEAL!!!! I appreciate the patience as I work through some bugs that you all have uncovered. v19.1 Bugfixes: - Fixed bugs with tutorial - Moved the 'accept contract' button so that it is no longer hidden by the tutorial.
- v19: Daytrading Update - 12 November 2025
v19 is upon us! Cleaned up more rough edges regarding buy-outs, contracts, CEO rating, plane management and more.New Bird: The DoveStock TradingStock trading is the new method for taking over airlines. You can collect other bonuses along the way, such as mandatory codeshares, the ability to redirect plane orders, and even the ability to steal their planes in operation!6 New ContractsStrengthen Hub: Add additional routes to a certain hub.Fleet Share: Reach X% fleet share with a certain manufacturer.City Dominance: Become dominant (>66% market share) at a certain airport.Strategic Partnership: Own some number of shares in a certain airline.Share Buyback: Buy back your own shares until you reach some target number.Fleet Modernization: Reduce the average age of your airline's planes to some number.Route AutobalancingYou can now autobalance your routes. The game will handle automatically add…
- Security Hotpatch & Sneak peek at v19 - 5 October 2025
v18.2Changes:- Recompiled game with Unity 2022.3.62f2 in order to mitigate CVE-2025-59489.v19 Sneak PeekWell, this is awkward. I was going to write a developer diary this weekend, but I ended up having to update the stable version to v18.2 to address the recent Unity security vulnerability. So I'll just leave you all with a little teaser image of what I've been working on--it should land in the preview branch later today if you'd like to try it out!
- Puffin Planes Dev Diary #3: One Year Anniversary - 5 September 2025
Welp, I spent 20 minutes writing out this dev diary and then Steam ate it when I tried to save and refresh my browser window. So you're getting my rushed second take at this, but. 🎉🎉🎉 Happy 1-year anniversary to Puffin Planes! Big thank you to everyone who has given this game a try and also those who have helped provide incredible feedback on Steam and Discord for how to make the game better. I hope you all have seen your feedback incorporated into the AI update, the Planes update, and then most recently the Settings update.Speaking of updates, I have something new for you all... (well, except for those of you who are already enrolled in the \ branch): I'd like to announce the upcoming Stock Update!Yes, that's right, you'll be able to buy and sell the stocks of other airlines. This replaces the existing buyout mechanics; to buy out a competitor you'll need to gather at least 51 of th…
- Puffin Planes Dev Diary #2: CEO Rating Improvements & Regional Carriers - 16 August 2025
Ever since launching the game, I've been working on adding depth and immersion to all of the various game mechanics. Airplanes got seating classes, airports got improved buildings and concourses, and manufacturers got a massive ordering system overhaul. Well, I'm sure many of you will be happy to hear that CEO Rating is the next game mechanic to get this treatment.Growth MetricsInternally referred to as CQGR (Compound Quarterly Growth Rate), this is the rate at which your airline grows in three key metrics:Passengers DeliveredCities ServedPlanes OwnedIf you have a high growth rate, then your board of directors will be happy and your CEO rating will naturally tend towards some higher value (approx. 80-85% in the above picture). Many of you have rightly pointed out that it never really made sense that you could be the largest, most terrifying monopoly in the world and the board of directo…
- v18.1 - 31 July 2025
v18.1Features:- Added a "Random starting location" option in the New Game menu.Bugfixes:- "Veteran Veteran" achievement now takes into account used plane purchases.
- v18: Settings Update - 23 July 2025
Hi all, hope you are having a good summer. After spending five months working on the Puffin Planes Planes Update, I decided to try and keep the scope for v18 smaller. It's kind of a grab bag of random tweaks and features so I'm just going to name it the Settings Update, after the new game settings overhaul.4 New Soundtracks from Rodnie VueRodnie has been fantastic to work with on the soundtrack for Puffin Planes. Let's hear from him about the four new tracks that he has hand-crafted for the game:Vestmannaeyjar - This archipelago off the south coast of Iceland is known for its big puffin population; I'd imagine those puffins would be chatting a lot with each other.Saxopuffins - I think puffins are the type of creatures to really like ambient saxophone music...Beak into the Sea - Like many other seabirds, puffins dive into the ocean to hunt small fish for food, maybe even catching a glimp…
- Puffin Planes Dev Diary #1: Redone Settings - 30 June 2025
Hello everyone, I'm back with a dev diary for Puffin Planes. I'll start posting occasional dev diaries instead of posting every single preview update as an announcement; this will help keep the library view cleaner. I'll still try to post patch notes to Steam and Discord though. By the way, did I mention that the game's on sale? Actually, I don't know why I'm mentioning this. If you are reading this dev diary then you probably already own the game. Maybe you can buy it for a friend? Anyways...Coming Soon in v17.1(And currently available on the preview branch)New Main MenuIn order to redo the main menu windows, I first needed to reconfigure the main menu so that there was more space for them. To accomplish this I moved the action buttons over to the side.Airline customizationYou may have spotted in the previous picture a new "Airlines" tab in the New Game menu. This lets you customize th…
- v17: Puffin Planes Planes Update - 20 May 2025
What's up everybody, I'm back with a new update. This one's been 3 months in the making; I thank everyone on Steam & Discord who gave a ton of feedback and helped make this update fun to play. I'll be putting the game on sale to celebrate the new update, so if you haven't tried the game yet then be sure to check it out! For this update I really wanted to do a total overhaul of the plane mechanics; I felt that ordering planes kind of lacked depth--you just clicked the button whenever you wanted more of them. So I redid that mechanic and now you need to compete against other airlines to place plane orders! Hopefully this feels more immersive! If you are too lazy to do plane order micromanagement, I also added a used plane marketplace so that you could always have something to fly...although no guarantee that it is in good condition... That brings me to another new mechanic: plane health!…
- v17-pre12, pre13 - 5 May 2025
A grab-bag of balance tweaks, bugfixes and small QoL features. We are almost at the finish line--the next patch will probably be a release candidate, with the update out by mid-month. v17-pre13 Features: - The Penguin: 2x speed and -50% service point cost for regular maintenance. - The Ostrich: 15% chance of receiving an extra plane whenever you take delivery from manufacturer. Changes: - Tutorial now explains ordering new planes - Removed retrofitting. - Some plane models, such as the PAX-200, can now become obsolete. - Airplane view in Network Overview now shows the model. - Route ruler now configurable in the settings menu. - Discontinued models now appear on the 'Models' tab of the Manufacturers GUI. - Increased fuel efficiency of the Atto to make it easier to break even. - Route ruler now only shows up if you have planes in your hangar. - Nerfed the PAX-125 range from 4,000km to 3,…
