At Newsky we strongly believe that total balance of airline account is absolutely pointless in virtual airline world. It provides no useful information about airline financial situation, imposes limitations and conflicts that can't be sorted out in this simulated world without hurting real people. Let us explain in more details...
To fairly compare airlines in Newsky we need a reliable financial situation indicator. Total balance since airline inception is definitely not it, simply because airline that exists longer has more time to accumulate more money. Also in real world airlines do not hoard money - if there is money in the bank it means something's wrong and airline is not investing properly! Therefore a more reliable way of telling if airline is doing good financially is to monitor balance in given time frame. In Newsky this will most likely be quarterly when rankings are introduced.
Newsky is not a tycoon game focused on slow gradual development from zero to hero. Newsky is, at it's heart, a simulation of airline operations and we believe we cannot limit airlines growth rate in any way. If managers know how to grow fast and keep money flowing then there should not be any fictional barrier holding them up. Total account balance would impose such limitations because managers won't be able to lease aircraft, gates or create schedules when initial money runs out.
Another limitation (sort of) is where does it end? How far should the account go if you create a very efficient airline? Should it go to infinity? And what next? Newsky is not a place to brag about how much your airline has earned so far and these numbers would very quickly become empty values after few months as everyone doing decent job will hit 8-10 zero amounts.
Total account balance means that we need to handle bancrupcy - what happens if money runs out? It's clear in real life as the airline is simply bought out by other bigger airline or disolved completely to cover the debts. But in this simulated and hermetic world this is not an option. Should Newsky simply close that airline and invalid the real work of multiple people put into it? Should it then be possible to create the exact same airline from scratch? Maybe Newsky should provide bail out? But then what is even the sense of total account balance if you can never loose and will always be bailed out or can start over without harm? This "no consequence" approach also poses real threat to balance in Newsky world as "troll" airlines can appear that will dump their prices to simply snatch all the passengers and ruin the game for others.
Another conflict is more of a moral nature for us as Newsky isn't something you can win and be done with it. It's a place where we can all keep working on our skills, both piloting and management, and we should be able to do so without any interference or negativity. We want to see a small and upcoming airline challenge a behemoth 1000 pilot airline for the #1 spot in the rankings just because they work hard and are doing great job managing their finances.
Newsky will not introduce a total account balance for the reasons given above. We strongly believe it to be stupid concept that was proven to be flawed and empty numbers by all the solutions that came before us - we want to do it better!