The player has an amount of control over how their airline develops, such as the name, investments, what routes to fly, plane purchases, and other various aspects, while at the mercy of world events such as politics (for instance, choosing to run an airline out of Moscow will restrict the player to buying only Soviet planes, and will make negotiating with Western nations more difficult[3]) and natural disasters.

[6] The gameplay is superficially straightforward: players negotiate for access slots at each airport, buy airplanes, then open routes and start business.

After each player has made their desired moves, the game shows any world events that affect the players (for instance, a labor strike will delay shipments of aircraft from that company, while the Olympic Games will boost traffic worldwide, particularly to the host city).

Super Gamer reviewed the SNES version and gave an overall score of 81% writing: "This puts you in charge of an airline, buying aircraft, routes, hotels, advertising, and even choosing whether to skimp on repairs!

"[12] A remake of this game was made for the Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Windows PC called Air Management '96[b].