News

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we will highlight some of our development updates, as well outline future plans.

Development updates

In July, we updated the statistics on the pilot profile page to be more easily navigable and to give a better overview of your overall performance. If you have any suggestions on what more you'd like to see on your profile page, please let us know in the Discord server.

The past few weeks we've been working on a native integration of VAS ACARS into Microsoft Flight Simulator which will not require running an external program. We have made a lot of progress on this and can now fully record and submit flight reports from within MSFS. We are planning to continue development of this VAS ACARS version and hope to make it available to you by the end of the year. The main reason for the development of this new version is to add Xbox support, but this will depend on whether we can get this version of VAS ACARS published in the MSFS marketplace.

Airline updates

SAS has been removed from the VA after restructing. A number of tours reliant on SAS Airways routes have been restructured or retired. ITA Airways' takeover by the Lufthansa group has been approved by all relevant antitrust authorities and as such ITA Airways will leave Skyteamvirtual.org for Staralliancevirtual.org somewhere in Q4 2024. When the firm date of departure is known we will let you know. The Korean Air merger with Asiana is still waiting on US approval however it is likely that this merger will be completed in Q4 of 2024 as well.

After Air India was privatized and acquired by the Tata Group in 2021 it was widely expected that this would merge Vistara and Air India, this has since materialized. The current Vistara brand will be discontinued mid-November and will be merged into Air India. This move will be replicated on the VA, and will not impact the route network, with existing Vistara routes continuing operations as Air India.

We will follow real-world events closely and keep you informed in these posts of future happenings.

Tour updates

We continue to work on updating our existing tours, and if you have tours that you would like to see do not hesitate to let us know!

The monthly tour crosses the Atlantic ocean and continues on towards South America. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here. If the great circle route of your flight crosses any airspace with known safety NOTAMs a notice is placed on your flight briefing page.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working on adding more events to our event calender. Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there!

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we will highlight some of our development updates, as well outline future plans.

Development updates

We have released a new version of VAS ACARS that streamlines the UI and aligns it with the flight briefing page. It also adds support or improves compatibility with a few aircraft add-ons. For full details, please see the release notes of version 3.2.3.

Airline updates

Since the previous newspost the restructuring plans for SAS have since been approved and as such we still expect SAS to leave Star Alliance at the end of August 2024, and join the SkyTeam alliance in early September. This move will be replicated on the VA this means that SAS will leave the VA in early September 2024. Any existing tours reliant on SAS routes will be reworked after this time. As fleet replacement picks up across various airlines in the VA we expect some routes to changeover to different types throughout this year. If you notice any discrepancies do not hesitate to let us know.

We will follow real-world events closely and keep you informed in these posts of future happenings.

Tour updates

We continue to work on updating our existing tours, and if you have tours that you would like to see do not hesitate to let us know!

The monthly tour starts in Central Africa and ends in Europe. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here. If the great circle route of your flight crosses any airspace with known safety NOTAMs a notice is placed on your flight briefing page.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working on adding more events to our event calender. Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there!

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we will highlight some of the VA updates, as well outline future plans.

Schedule updates

All routes have been moved to the Northern Summer/Southern Winter flying season in the past few weeks. As part of this, we have reduced the number of duplicated routes which also results in more accurate departure and arrival times. If you notice any irregular flight times and/or missing routes after this time please let us know in the Discord server or in a support ticket.

Airline updates

As of the writing of this newspost SAS is expected to leave Star Alliance at the end of August 2024, and join the SkyTeam alliance in early September. This move will be replicated on the VA this means that after August 2024 SAS will no longer be part of this VA we are working to ensure that the impact of this move is minimal. Turkish Airlines subsidiary AnadoluJet has since rebranded to Ajet and this has been updated on the VA.

We will follow real-world events closely and keep you informed in these posts of future happenings.

Tour updates

We continue to work on updating our existing tours, and if you have tours that you would like to see do not hesitate to let us know!

The monthly tour takes you across the Africa. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here. If the great circle route of your flight crosses any airspace with known safety NOTAMs a notice is placed on your flight briefing page.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working on adding more events to our event calender. Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there!

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/EAKR7Qe.

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we will highlight some of our development updates, as well outline future plans.

Development updates

We have reworked the landing bonus to be more reflective of ideal real-world landing rates. In addition to this the landing bonus is now granular, allowing for fairer scoring. A landing bonus is now provided for landing rates between -600fpm and 0 fpm; with the maximum possible score being awarded between landing rates of -200fpm and -60fpm. The full distribution graph can be found below:

Tour based score bonuses have also been added; after careful deliberation and work these bonuses will apply to all previously completed tours. All retro-active score bonuses will be added upon your next completed flight. The bonus score differs per tour and is based on a combination of the number of legs in a tour as well the total distance. The total awarded score is listed in the tour description for each tour. We are looking at reworking, and clarifying the existing booking procedure. This may include a possible rework of the current aircraft substitution system. If you have any ideas on how to improve this, please let us know.

Airline updates

A new ANA subsidiary, Air Japan, has been added to the VA. This airline will initially operate routes throughout Asia using 787's from ANA. As of February 2024 the Korean Air merger with Asiana has since been approved by the European Commission. It is still waiting on a decision by the US Department of Justice at the time of writing. It is expected that this deal will close before the end of 2024.

We will follow real-world events closely and keep you informed in these posts of future happenings.

Tour updates

We have introduced numerous new airline tours that include new awards reflective of new branding. Along with this a number of new themed tours are scheduled to start early this month Throughout the coming year we will slowly be reworking and replacing older tours that have been active for more than two years.

The monthly tour takes you across South-East Asia and the Indian sub-continent. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here. If the great circle route of your flight crosses any airspace with known safety NOTAMs a notice is placed on your flight briefing page.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working on adding more events to our event calender. Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there!

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Happy New Year and we wish you all the best for 2024!

This month's news update will highlight some of our development updates, as well as future plans.

Development updates

We have completed our work on individual airline load factors, with every airline having been assigned a custom load factor mirroring real world operations. The passenger and cargo levels on your flight are now based on these airline load factors, and should be a more realistic representation of real-world load factors.

We are investigating adding score bonuses when completing a tour based on tour distance. These will apply retroactively, as well as to newly completed tours. We don't have a solid time frame on this, but hope to implement this in the coming few months. Moreover, we are working on adding a new filter on routes for only showing tour legs to help you in finding new tours to complete. To coincide with this, we are also investigating improving discoverability of tours. If you have any ideas on how to improve this, please let us know.

Airline updates

A takeover bid has been submitted by the Air France-KLM consortium to takeover SAS. This deal is currently awaiting regulatory approval. When/if regulatory approval has been granted SAS will be moved to our sister VA from StarAlliance virtual. ITA Airways' inclusion in the Lufthansa group will see ITA Airways join StarAlliance virtual when regulatory proceedings have concluded. We expect more changes throughout the year as the Korean Air merger with Asiana nears its deadline, though approval of this deal is not guaranteed.

We will follow real-world events closely and keep you informed in these posts of future happenings.

Tour updates

We have introduced a numerous new airline tours and location tours. Throughout the coming year we will slowly be reworking and replacing older tours that have been active for more than two years.

The monthly tour takes you across Asia and Oceania. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello Pilots,

This month's news update will highlight some schedule updates, as well as some VA update news.

Development updates

We are working towards an overhaul of the passenger and payload system used for flight briefings. This will encompass individualized load factors on a by airline basis, with normalized distribution. Further load factors will be split between passenger and cargo load factors to provide more accuracy within the provided flight briefings. This will be rolling out before the end of the year. Further we are looking to rework the tours page to provide better discovery options and improve clarity on legs that have not been flown yet.

Schedule updates

We will be moving to the Northern Winter/ Southern Summer flying season in the coming weeks. We expect to complete this changeover by mid-November. If you notice any irregular flight times and/or missing routes after this time please let us know in the Discord server or in a support ticket.

Tour updates

We have introduced a number of new themed tours, and are working on further expanding our tour selection based on your suggestions on Discord.

The monthly tour takes you across the Pacific and the United States. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. We would recommend checking your route prior to departure especially if it crosses and known airspaces with known security warnings. A complete overview can be found here.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello Pilots,

This month's news update will highlight some airline updates, as well as some VA update news.

Development Updates

All fleets now have individual cabin configurations. If you find any anomalies or missing data please let us know. Moreover, all airlines have been assigned either imperial or metric units for use in on the flight briefing page. You can also change this setting so it always shows imperial or metric units on your preferences page. Further work is progressing on updating the generated payload to increase realism and accuracy.

Tour updates

We have introduced a number of new themed tours, and are working on further expanding our tour selection based on your suggestions on Discord.

The monthly tour takes you from Thailand to Guam. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. Recent developments have included the closures of Sudanese airspace airspace for all traffic, please take these into account when planning your flight. Exceeding the listed scheduled flight time for this reason is expected and not an issue. If your flight is given a remark incorrectly please let us know via support ticket.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Airline News

Vistara, part of the Singapore Airlines and TATA group has been added to the VA. Furthermore, Skymark airlines part of the ANA group has also been added. Both provide new destinations to the VA.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello Pilots,

This month's news update will highlight some development updates, as well as some VA update news.

Development Updates

We have made various improvements to the website. We have added complete cabin configurations to aircraft, including different cabin configurations within an airline subfleet. Starting today, you will be able to see the cabin configuration of your booked aircraft on the flight briefing page. Additionally, live flights will now show the route as flown rather than the great circle route. Lastly, you are now able to set the unit system (kgs, lbs) you'd like to use on your preferences page. By default, we'll use the airline's unit system. This has not been setup yet, but in the next few weeks all airlines will be updated, so you'll start seeing lbs being used by default for airlines which use lbs as their main unit.

Tour updates

We have introduced a number of new themed tours, the aircraft tours selection is also being updated.

The monthly tour takes you from Northern Europe to South East Asia. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello Pilots,

This month's news update will highlight some development updates, as well as some VA update news.

Development Updates

VAS ACARS 3.2.0 was released yesterday which includes native support for X-Plane. Instead of using XPUIPC and the FSUIPC connector, you can now install the new vasxplane plugin and use the X-Plane connector. This should be more stable and will allow us to support more operating systems in the future. It will also allow us to add support for specific aircraft natively within the plugin. For information on how to get started, please see our renewed X-Plane guide on our support website. VAS ACARS 3.2.0 also incorporated numerous other changes and improvements, for a full list please check the release notes.

In the last few weeks, we have been improving our database infrastructure. This project is now complete and has resulted in a noticeable speed-up on some pages:

We have also made various other improvements to the website, such as adding the aircraft substitutions widget in a few more places, improving our map style by for example adding runway and taxiway names to the map, adding a "Flights Yesterday" statistic to our statistics page, and replacing "Boarding" by "Pre-departure" for non-passenger carrying flights on live flights. 18 more airports around the world have received airport gate information. The flight processor has been updated to support the 'Hotel' mode on the recently released Microsoft ATR airliners when VAS ACARS 3.2.0 is used. Finally, the Pilot Handbook and the Complete Guide to Flight Scoring have received updates to further clarify how flights are scored. If you have any suggestions for other improvements we can make, post them in the #suggestions channel on our Discord server or create a support ticket.

Tour updates

We have introduced a number of new themed tours, the aircraft tours selection is also being updated .

The monthly tour takes you from Scandinavia south to Ethiopia. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. Exceeding the listed scheduled flight time for this reason is expected and not an issue. If your flight is given a remark incorrectly please let us know via support ticket.

Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA. This will be the last time this is mentioned in our newspost and the pilot handbook has been rewritten for more information on this subject for future reference.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! If you have other events on online platforms that you feel are a good match to include on the VA please let us know. To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.

Hello Pilots,

This month's news update will highlight some updates to the website.

Website News

The forum has been discontinued and may now be found in our Discord server. For tour suggestions, or longer format discussions we encourage you to use the forum functionality. If you haven't joined Discord yet, use discord.gg/gUTREjv to join. The flight briefing page will now show the airline call sign for reference, we are working on improving the accuracy of the displayed callsigns to take subsidiaries into account. Further airports have received gate information to further improve the information on the flight briefing page.

Tour updates

The process of refreshing our tours continues at pace. The following are the plans for the rest of the year:

• All our ‘Aircraft Tours’ will be retired at the end of June 2023. These tours are the least popular and overlap with other tours. We will consolidate the aircraft tours into groups, e.g. turboprops, and move them into the themed tours section. Any existing awards that you have earned will remain.
• Instead of a very long Hub tour, we will divide this into shorter tours and move them into the regional tour sections. The African and New World tours are examples with no expiry date unless there is a significant change in our hub structure. If you have flown any of these routes before, your progress will be retained, as will any awards.
• We will introduce a new section called ‘Fly again.’ Here we will reactivate expired tours that were very popular and allow new pilots to compete. If you have flown one of these tours before, all your flight routes will be green to retain your award.
• Lastly, monthly tours now include common legs with other tours. Overlapping tours are very popular, and we will continue doing this with new tours.

The monthly tour takes you across the South Atlantic and across Africa. If you have any suggestions on tours you would like to see please let us know on Discord.

Closed airspaces

Current scheduled flight time durations may need to be amended due to longer flying times on account of closed airspace. Exceeding the listed scheduled flight time for this reason is expected and not an issue. If your flight is given a remark incorrectly please let us know via support ticket.

You can find more information about which airspaces are closed and how the civil aviation situation is developing on this FlightRadar24 page. Please adhere to these closures when performing flights on the VA.

Event Updates

We are working with the vACEPG initiative to co-host more VATSIM events. Please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord what kind of events you would like to see! To receive more frequent updates please subscribe to the Event Announcements notifications on our Discord server.

Airline News

Several shifts and mergers are expected throughout the year, though as ever timeframes appear somewhat loose. We will do our best to follow real-world shifts in the aviation industry as they may occur, though none of the following news is final. As of writing ITA Airways is in negotiations with the Lufthansa group regarding a (partial) take-over of ITA Airways. Both the IAG group and Air France-KLM have expressed interest in a (partial) takeover of TAP Air Portugal. The planned Korean Air merger with Asiana Airlines is currently held up with multiple regulators requiring more time to investigate the planned merger. Multiple airlines including the Avianca group, LATAM group, JetSMART, Wingo and Aerolíneas Argentinas have all expressed interest in taking over VIVA Air Colombia.

Broadly we can gather there is interest in consolidation throughout the industry and we will continue following these developments.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions or questions do not hesitate to let us know. If you would be interested in helping improve the VA do not hesitate to send an application to join the volunteer staff team using the support ticket system.

We would also like to remind you we have a Discord server. To join it, use discord.gg/gUTREjv.