Ah, found it. Go to the variable in the second page of the autorun event on Map 1, and you should see "Control Variables: (0001: Airship Map) == 1." Set the constant to 2. It was configured wrong in the demo, but the instructions have it right.
As for the guy disappearing, that happens because you go to a separate map for the airship, allowing you to set impassable areas like mountains without making the game process even more at once. Generally the npc that gives you the airship won't be on the world map, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.
There is another bug, though. Sometimes the map won't actually loop. I'm not exactly sure, but I think it has something to do with how much it has to go through in the space of 1 frame, so I guess the game just doesn't process the command in time.
Thanks! I didn't think of it at first either. I tried to use a character set (I even made up separate ones of the departure/landing and movement), but it just didn't work out and caused a bunch of issues with passability and placing. Plus, the picture allows me to make a more fluid animation than a character set.