Blue Skies

About this board game

Blue Skies is a 2–5 player airline strategy game with a 45-minute play time, set in the United States after the airline industry’s 1979 deregulation. Each player develops a new airline, competing for gates, passengers, income, and regional dominance.

The board features 30 airports in 30 cities, with four gates at each airport. At the start, demand cards seed airports with passengers drawn from a bag containing 100 red cubes and 25 green cubes. Passenger placement continues until a red cube appears, then passengers are distributed as evenly as possible among the airport’s open gates.

On each turn, players buy gates at airports of their choice while spending no more than six points. You can buy out a local airline, open gates in new cities, or concentrate your presence at one airport. Your income reflects the passengers waiting at your gates, and unspent purchase points are added to your score.

• Play demand cards to bring additional passengers to specific airports.
• Use limited gate purchases to build networks and pursue airport dominance.
• Track passenger demand as cards continue to send travelers across the board.
• Compete for scoring majorities across seven U.S. regions.

At the end of the game, airports contribute dominance value to their regions. Some airports count in two regions, such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Dallas–Fort Worth. Regional scoring rewards first and second place differently, making strategic positioning especially important.

The game ends when a player reaches at least 100 points or places their twentieth and final gate. In Blue Skies, building a profitable airline is only part of the challenge: you must also decide where to expand and how to secure the most valuable regions before your competitors do.