Passengers

Passengers (pax) are people carried in a vehicle in addition to its required crew. Revenue passengers pay to reach their booked destination and consider your passenger reputation before boarding. Transporting hired colonists is a separate activity.

Finding a passenger route

1. Open the Player Portal and select TICKETING.
2. Find your departure location in the left-hand FROM column, then read across to a TO destination.
3. Check the waiting count, fare per passenger, accepted destination code and the capacity of your passenger modules. Check the reverse direction separately if you want a return load.
4. At the departure location's passenger facility in the game, open PASSENGER TRANSFER, choose 1] Loading, and enter the destination identifier.

The Portal is a planning display. Its number fields are read-only; viewing a cell does not buy tickets, reserve a load or board passengers. Use Refresh to update the figures.

Reading Passenger Demand

Display	Meaning
Row / FROM	Where the waiting passengers are located now: your pickup origin.
Column / TO	Where those passengers want to arrive: their destination.
Number in the colored box	Number of waiting passenger requests in that direction. It is not a seat count for your aircraft or the number of flights required.
CR below the box	Average fare per passenger for the waiting requests in that cell, in credits. It is not the total payment for the whole queue.
0 with no fare	No waiting demand is shown for that direction in this snapshot. The destination identifier can still be valid.
Empty diagonal cell	The origin and destination are the same; no journey is shown.

Direction matters. Deois to Alphaville and Alphaville to Deois are different cells. Demand and average fares can differ in the two directions.

Color compares the total value of the waiting queue: waiting count multiplied by average fare. Blue indicates a lower value, purple an intermediate value, and red a higher value relative to the largest value in the displayed matrix. Color does not measure waiting time, urgency, fare per person, flight time or profit. A red cell can contain more passengers than you can carry, and a blue cell can still be a useful load.

Passenger Demand in the Player Portal. Read from a location on the left across to a destination at the top. Airport identifiers appear in parentheses; orbital dock headings use their identifiers directly. The figures are an example snapshot. Select the image to enlarge it, and use Refresh in the Portal for current demand.

Worked example

If the Deois (VDEO) row and Alphaville (VALP, VAPE) column show 1,512 and 46 CR, that means 1,512 requests to travel from Deois to Alphaville, averaging 46 CR each. At Deois, enter VALP or VAPE to request those passengers.

At that illustrative fare, carrying 120 passengers gives approximately 5,520 CR gross; carrying 60 gives approximately 2,760 CR gross. The displayed queue can supply several loads, but the whole queue is not the payment for one flight. Individual fares can vary, and fees, alliance taxation, fuel and other operating costs affect the amount you keep.

Destination identifiers

Enter the airport or dock code itself at the boarding prompt. For a surface destination, use a code shown in parentheses beside its name. For an orbital dock, use the dock identifier shown as its heading.

Portal destination	Example accepted input
Deois (VDEO)	VDEO
Alphaville (VALP, VAPE)	VALP or VAPE
Outer D (VCPS, VSUS)	VCPS or VSUS
CPOC	CPOC
TAC	TAC

Use the current Portal headings for other destinations. Omit the descriptive name and parentheses: enter VALP, rather than Alphaville (VALP). Enter the destination code; your current location supplies the origin.

• Codes are case-insensitive: valp and VALP identify the same destination.
• Multiple airport codes listed beside one territory are aliases for the same passenger demand. Either Alphaville code selects the same territory's passengers; listing both does not double the queue.
• Separate several destinations with commas, for example VALP,VDEO. This requests passengers for either destination; it does not enter a flight plan or arrange a sequence of stops.
• If any identifier in a list is invalid, the whole request is rejected and the invalid identifiers are reported. Correct the list and try again.
• Press Enter with an empty input to cancel loading.

Boarding passengers

Revenue passenger loading uses passenger ARJ modules. Each passenger ARJ holds 20 people. The number of usable modules and their remaining seats determine your available capacity. An occupied module must already be carrying the passenger load type; hired laborers and prisoners are separate load types.

At a surface location, open the required bay doors before loading or unloading. In PASSENGER TRANSFER, choose 1] Loading and supply the destination code or codes. The game attempts to load eligible passengers into accessible passenger modules; a Portal count does not guarantee that all of them will board your vehicle.

Boarding is affected by:

• Passenger reputation: some passengers or groups may not accept you as their pilot.
• Boarding group size: a family or other group boards together and must fit in the remaining seats of one passenger module. Three people cannot use two spare seats in one module and one in another.
• Capacity and access: full, unsuitable or inaccessible modules provide no seats for this operation.
• Vehicle capability: orbital passengers require a space-capable vehicle. A mixed request containing orbital passengers can be rejected when the vehicle cannot carry them to orbit.
• Current availability: the Portal is a snapshot shared by all pilots. Passengers can be picked up between checking the table and requesting a load.

A loading operation may select more than one destination. Check what you requested and plan delivery accordingly; the identifier list does not automatically manage those journeys.

Messages and troubleshooting

Result	What it means / what to check
Invalid destination identifier	One or more entered codes are not recognized. Check the codes in the Portal headings and remove destination names, parentheses or mistyped codes. A mixed valid/invalid list does not partially board.
"No passengers booking to that destination"	The identifiers were recognized, but no matching waiting bookings were found at your current origin. Check the FROM row and TO column, then refresh the Portal. A valid code does not guarantee demand.
Fewer passengers board than the displayed count, or no one boards despite positive demand	Check passenger reputation, group size, usable module capacity and vehicle capability. The displayed demand is not a promise of a full aircraft.
Doors or accommodation message	Follow the message: open the required doors or provide suitable passenger modules and a vehicle appropriate for the journey.

Delivery and payment

At the destination's passenger facility, choose 2] Unloading in PASSENGER TRANSFER. Passengers whose booked destination matches the location complete their journey and generate payment.

Unloading also removes passengers aboard whose destinations are elsewhere; these become layover passengers and need another pickup. Their journey is not complete, and the final delivery fare is reduced for previous layovers: one layover gives half the ticket fare, two give one third. Plan multiple-destination loads with this behavior in mind.

The Portal's fare is a planning estimate for service. Per-passenger dock fees and applicable alliance tax can reduce the payment you receive. Fuel and other operating costs are additional expenses. Check the delivery and payment messages after unloading.

Passengers expect a safe arrival at their requested destination. Do not leave them in an ARJ or vehicle indefinitely; they can starve.

See also

• Reputation
• ARJ
• Colonists
• Player Portal