If your iOS device is connected to the Internet, you can participate in global events in Pocket Planes.
What is an Event?
Events are random occurrences that take place in a particular city. Some events, such as weather events or computer failures, might cause an airport to close. Other events, like tourist booms and business meetings, will cause many cargo items and passengers to want to go to the city where the event is taking place.
How to View Current Events
You can view a list of current events from the Pocket Planes menu. Just tap Menu in the bottom-right corner, then tap the Events button.
What is a Global Event?
A global event is just like a regular event that causes cargo items and passengers to want to go to the event city, except with a global event, other players around the world also see the same event and can contribute to delivering passengers and cargo to the event city. Jobs for Global Events are displayed in blue.
For global events, other players can join teams called Flight Crews. Prizes are awarded based on each Flight Crew's performance, based on how many cargo items and passengers each Flight Crew delivers. You can also see your individual rank in the Flight Crew, but your individual rank does not affect which prize you get.
How to Participate in a Global Event
Step 1: Sign Into Game Center
To join a Global Event, you must first open the Game Center application and sign in with your Apple ID. For more information, read Apple's support article Using Game Center.
Step 2: Join a Flight Crew
If you have signed into Game Center, you can tap Menu in the bottom-right corner of the Pocket Planes interface, then tap Flight Crew in the menu.
In the Flight Crew screen, you will see "Active Flight Crew" at the top. By default, your flight crew is your Game Center name.
To change to a different flight crew, just tap the name of your flight crew and type a new name. There are other flight crews, some of which are very popular, including #toucharcade and #nimblewiki. Joining a popular flight crew increases your chances of getting a better prize.
Step 3: Open the Airport for the Event City
On the Flight Crew screen, under "Global Event", it lists the event city where you will need to deliver cargo and passengers in order to participate in the global event. If you don't have an airport in the city, you will have to spend the coins to open an airport there before you can participate in the global event.
If you have reached your maximum number of airports (which can be seen in the Stats screen in the Pocket Planes menu), you will need to close one of your existing airports before you can open the airport in the event city.
If you don't have any airports near the event city, you might also need to open airports nearby. You can move your planes to other cities by viewing a plane in an airport, tapping the plane info button (which has a picture of an airplane and a magnifying glass), then tapping Remove. Then, go to the Pocket Planes menu and tap Hangar, then tap Fly for the plane that you want to move (the Fly button is on the right.) Finally, tap the city that you want to move the plane to. Note that this costs Bux.
Step 4: Deliver the Minimum Number of Cargo and Passengers
In the Flight Crew screen, there is a Prizes button. Tap the Prizes button to see a list of the prizes that are being given away for the current global event. Below the list of prizes, it says "Deliver __ Jobs to Qualify for Prizes". If you want to receive a prize when the global event is over, you have to deliver the listed number of passengers and/or cargo, or more.
Prizes are awarded based on the entire flight crew's rank, and NOT on your individual rank. You can see the flight crew's rank by tapping the Leaderboard button on the Flight Crew screen, as well as your individual rank within the flight crew.