Folks have been talking about who gets to use an airship without talking about the more important question:
Why?
Every bit of literature seems to imply that regardless of who gets an airship pass, travel is limited to "those whose need is great" as "only a few airships are permitted to take flight at any given time". Even with commercial (that is, open to everyone who can pay) flight being available, airship travel isn't a luxury people choose for the sake of leisure travel. No, that would be sea travel, or travel by caravan, or even via aetheryte.
It wouldn't just be the pilots who would be hesitant to fly without good reason. Every flight is a potential risk, and even a group who somehow has a personal airship would be reasonably hesitant to take a joyride in their incredibly-expensive-to-build-and-maintain airship knowing that that is just asking for trouble.
Prudent, frugal people are avoiding flight, and people taking pleasure trips probably find ferries cheaper and more romantic.
So it seems like common sense to me: most people aren't flying even if they can.
Now, the thing that's got me scratching my head is how aetheryte travel is limited in lore. Its usage is a lore fixture, but what is the limit on it? In FFXIV 1.0, wasn't it limited by personal stores of aether, so that you could literally be too exhausted to teleport multiple times?
Now it somehow only costs gil. I wonder if THAT part is based in lore, as well.
Why?
Every bit of literature seems to imply that regardless of who gets an airship pass, travel is limited to "those whose need is great" as "only a few airships are permitted to take flight at any given time". Even with commercial (that is, open to everyone who can pay) flight being available, airship travel isn't a luxury people choose for the sake of leisure travel. No, that would be sea travel, or travel by caravan, or even via aetheryte.
It wouldn't just be the pilots who would be hesitant to fly without good reason. Every flight is a potential risk, and even a group who somehow has a personal airship would be reasonably hesitant to take a joyride in their incredibly-expensive-to-build-and-maintain airship knowing that that is just asking for trouble.
Prudent, frugal people are avoiding flight, and people taking pleasure trips probably find ferries cheaper and more romantic.
So it seems like common sense to me: most people aren't flying even if they can.
Now, the thing that's got me scratching my head is how aetheryte travel is limited in lore. Its usage is a lore fixture, but what is the limit on it? In FFXIV 1.0, wasn't it limited by personal stores of aether, so that you could literally be too exhausted to teleport multiple times?
Now it somehow only costs gil. I wonder if THAT part is based in lore, as well.
