News

Hello pilots,

In this month's news we will provide some development and VA updates.

Development updates

We have started laying the groundwork for historical routes and fleets. This will take the form of separated fleet and route pages from the present routes & fleet. If you have a deep understanding and/or access to old schedules and would like to contribute to this project please reach out to us via support ticket.

Airline updates

JetBlue has reached an agreement with United Airlines, forming the "Blue Sky" partnership. As such Jetblue has been added to the VA, providing more options throughout the Americas.

Air Europa has reached an agreement with Turkish Airlines regarding a minority stake, at the time of writing it appears that Air Europa will continue to be a full SkyTeam member. As always we will continue to monitor the real-world situation to best represent the airline alliances.

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 Americas. 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.

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 some development updates, as well as some VA updates.

New booking experience

For the past few years, we have been working on an improved booking experience, that makes it easier to filter and book flights. This new booking experience is now nearly complete, and we are making the new experience available as a preview. You can opt-in to the new experience by using the Try the new booking experience button on the flight booking page:

After opting-in, you will be redirected to the new booking experience. All of the same filters are available, but filtering routes should feel a lot faster. In addition, we will now show which tours a specific route is part of, as well as the bonuses that are available for at least one of the aircraft on the route.

We are planning to fully switch over to the new booking experience in a few months, so please try the preview to ensure we flesh out any bugs. If you have any feedback or have found a bug, please let us know in Discord. If the new experience prevents you from booking a flight, you can also always switch back to the class booking page through the Switch back to the classic booking experience link.

New VAS ACARS release

Earlier this week, we have released a new version of VAS ACARS that restores compatibility with the iniBuilds A350 after the iniBuilds A350 v1.1.0 update. It also adds a new wizard that allows you to select a simulator connector on first start-up, rather than defaulting to FSUIPC. We hope this encourages more pilots to choose SimConnect, as this is generally more stable and allows us more freedom in adding aircraft compatibility through direct integrations with these add-ons. Please let us know if you experience any issues after upgrading to VAS ACARS v3.3.0.

Airline updates

ITA Airways has been moved over to Star Alliance Virtual, opening up new route possibilities from Italy.

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 Pacific Ocean and visits a few locations in Southeast Asia. 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.

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 share some VA and airline updates.

Airline updates

ITA Airways is expected to join Star Alliance as part of the Lufthansa Group on June 1st 2025. Once this transition is complete, ITA Airways will be added to Star Alliance Virtual. Nippon Cargo Airlines has been added to the VA after being acquired by the ANA group, this opens up more 747 cargo flights.

We have updated most of our airline schedules to the Northern Summer / Southern Winter flying season. If you find any more missing routes do not hesitate to let us know.

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 Southeast Asia. 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 some development updates, as well as some VA updates.

Development updates

We will shortly release a new version of VAS ACARS which will improve landing gear detection for most aircraft add-ons. This should improve scores for most pilots, please let us know if you experience any issues after upgrading to VAS ACARS 3.2.10.

As you may have noticed, the live flights map now has a globe projection which makes it much easier to see the great-circle route of a flight. This is also available on your pilot profile to more easily view your flown routes.

Airline updates

ITA Airways is expected to leave the SkyTeam alliance and move to Star Alliance as part of the Lufthansa Group on June 1st 2025. Once this transition is complete, ITA Airways will be added to Star Alliance Virtual.

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 Middle East and India. 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 2025!

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

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 support

VAS ACARS fully supports Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 if you are using the SimConnect connector, which is our recommended way of connecting to your simulator. You can find more information about configuring SimConnect on this page.

Airline updates

A number of timelines for airline mergers, integrations and general updates have shifted slightly and these have been outlined here.

ITA Airways is expected to leave the Skyteam and move to Star Alliance as part of the Lufthansa Group in the first quarter of 2025. This timeline is still fluid and we will continue to monitor this news.

The merger of Korean Air and Asiana is expected to go ahead with complete integration of Asiana Airlines into Korean Air planned for 2026. As operations slowly changeover these changes will be reflected on the VA.

It is expected that aircraft deliveries will speed up in the new year, further advancing many airlines' fleet renewal programs. The accompanying schedule changes will be reflected on the VA.

Schedule updates

We have moved all schedules to the Northern Winter/Southern Summer flying season. 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 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 from Europe 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. 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 MSFS2024 support, some development updates, and information about the new flying season.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 support

We expect VAS ACARS to support Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on day 1. We will release an update of VAS ACARS in the coming few days that will add basic support for MSFS2024 based on the TechAlpha and information that is publicly available. This should ensure that you can record flights in MSFS2024 on November 19 by using the VAS ACARS SimConnect connector.

Development updates

In our last update, we shared a preview of our native integration of VAS ACARS with Microsoft Flight Simulator. Unfortunately, this native integration will not be available for Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), and will only be available for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. We do not yet have a date for this release as we still need to do additional testing and would like to have it available on the MSFS marketplace, but we are still working on bringing this experience to everyone.

We have refreshed our support site: all information is now easier to find in the support section, some documentation has been restructured to be easier to follow, and dark mode is now supported. We would recommend checking it out before creating a support ticket.

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 the end of 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 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 first two hub tours will be retired at the end of the year and we aim to roll over all hub tours to new ones throughout 2025.

The monthly tour takes you from the Americas to New Zealand. 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

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.