Seoul is a large city located in South Korea. The city has very high business and tourism ratings that always exceed 300 each. The tourism ratings are usually higher than the business ratings and have been known to exceed 500. Seoul is one of the very few cities that will host multiple events over the course of the entire game as the city will host the 1988 Summer Olympic Games and the 2002 World Cup. During the months of these events, passenger travel will be increased greatly.
Airport
The default airport here is Incheon International Airport (ICN).
Trivia
In real life, Incheon International Airport was only opened in 2001. Prior to this, Gimpo International Airport was the main international airport into Seoul. Today, Incheon Airport handles the majority of international flights while Gimpo takes care of most of the domestic flights in South Korea.
Strategy
This city is one of the most popular cities to start at. Beginners are advised not to start here. Due to it's high ratings, competition can be very intense. Although the city can sustain it, inexperienced players may earn losses or have limited profits if they make a wrong move. The city is also isn't in a very ideal spot to make routes to. While there are plenty of cities to the west of Seoul to connect to, like Beijing, London and Mumbai, there are few locations directly to the east of the city and long ranged aircraft (usually 9000 km or more) are needed to cross the Pacific Ocean to get to the North American cities like Los Angeles and New York. Cargo routes face a slightly bigger problem due to the lack of long ranged cargo aircraft in the game, which results in a reduced availability of profitable routes to the player.
Incheon International Airport can attain maximum slot usage around 10 to 15 years after 1960. Due to this, a second airport is usually necessary and is often built by players rather than the national government. However, due to the city's position which causes a lack of routes to be formed to the east of the city, the second airport usually would not be able to attain a maximum slot usage of 2600 (level 8). A more common level for the second airport is usually a level 6. Hence building additional airports here should be considered after ideal choices like Paris and Amsterdam are unavailable. Purchase of the main airport is recommended as the level 8 status can bring in massive profits for the player.
Like many large sized cities, the best planes are the ones that are able to fend off competition and this usually means a high satisfaction at the time of purchase and the ability of carry many passengers. Favourites for many players include the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 747. Small sized aircraft like the Boeing 737, Airbus A320, Bombardier CSeries and Tupolev Tu-104 are usually not recommended as the city's high ratings mean the sheer number of passengers would overwhelm the planes and more than one will be required, which may lead to greater depreciation. For cargo routes, any planes are suitable as long as the satisfaction at the time of purchase is high. Boeing 777F and the Airbus A380F can be used to connect to North American or European cities, which are often very far away.
A player can take advantage of the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 World Cup by adding temporary aircraft and/or raising prices to passenger routes in and out of the city to boost income during the month of these events.