Occasionally, the Airline Tycoon fan-base will refer to the original Airline Tycoon series as "Airline Tycoon 1," which collectively includes:
where each game is developed by Spellbound Entertainment and each successor consists of more features than its predecessors.
Airline Tycoon 2 more closely resembles the next generation of the Airline Tycoon series as it has eliminated some features previously available in Airline Tycoon 1 in addition to having introduced some new features. It is also the first game in the series developed by B-Alive GmbH and published by Kalypso Media.