Virtual airlines

A virtual airline (VA) is a dedicated hobby organization that uses flight simulation to model the operations of an airline. Virtual airlines generally have a presence on the internet, similar to a real airline. There are over 100 virtual airlines of significance currently active in the internet (supporting a number of flightsims), with thousands of participants involved at any one time each using different simulator platforms.

The logos of most of the currently existing Virtual Airlines operating in FlightGear.

Virtual Airlines in FlightGear

Currently, some number of virtual airlines exist, with airlines made of various experiences, fleets and operations. Here is a list of some of the known virtual airlines to have existed.

Current Flightgear Virtual Airlines

These are the current virtual airlines in operation. Major Virtual Airlines include (In order of start announcement):

• Island Virtual Airways
• TransGear Airways
• Coastal Air Systems (switching over to Atlas Virtual Airlines by March/April 2010)

Flightgear Virtual Airline Merger Program

NOTE : There is currently a debate as to whether all existing FlightGear Virtual airlines be merged into one airline. See this topic.

The following aspects of the proposed unified Virtual Airline have been decided.

• Name : Atlas Virtual Airlines
• Hub : EDDF

Airlines to be merged

• Japan Pacific Airlines
• Coastal Air Systems
• Skynet International Airlines
• Europe Airlines

Current Alliances

• Star Alliance
• SkyTeam
• Skygear Alliance
• Sky Alliance

Proposed Airlines

These are the airlines proposed but not seen actual operations as of today.

• Sandy Oceania Airlines

Inactive Airlines

The term "inactive" is debated on the forums. Here, deserting of the website and/or operations are defined as inactive.

• Gisi Airlines
• Americair
• Detra Airlines
• Air San Francisco

As the concept of virtual airlines is fairly new, it is unknown how active these virtual airlines are. Some are fairly active, including Skynet International, Coastal Air Systems or Euroair, or are inactive (decommisioned), such as Air San Francisco and Americair.

Purpose

Virtual airlines were started to give a sense of purpose to activities conducted within a flight simulator. This basic premise has evolved over time, along with available technology, to provide increasing levels of immersion but always with the same core purpose. When combined with increasingly powerful personal computers, advancing flight simulation software, and communications networks, virtual airlines are often able to provide compelling, realistic, experiences similar to operations inside a real airline. Virtual airlines also provide an avenue for members to gain access to additional content, such as aircraft and scenery, for use with their simulator. The appeal varies; for younger members, virtual airlines provide a sandbox environment where they can experience the corporate environment of commercial business in the airline industry, without the risk of financial loss. These organizations also provide an outlet for those who are interested in aviation but unable to fly themselves in real life due to financial, health, or other reasons. Most of all, its one step closer to enthusiasts feeling more involved in an airline environment and share their interests with others.

Common elements

There are several elements that are common across many virtual airlines: A website as the focal point of the community Internet forum where discussion and social interaction can occur Customized livery that users can download together with aircraft and install in their flight simulator Route schedules for members to fly in their simulators Multiplayer events, often on a game network such as VATSIM or IVAO Less common elements include: An Online database for recording and reporting flights and membership statistics Dedicated game server hosting to provide private areas for members to complete flights Award, rank and recognition systems Voice over Internet Protocol servers for members to communicate freely by voice

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Controversies

Copyright Issues

When a virtual airline is created in the image of a real world airline legal issues can arise out of copyright violations. In 2003, a real world airline, Qantas Airways Ltd, announced a new low-cost carrier by the name of Jetstar Airways. However, a virtual airline named Jetstar International Airlines already existed, complete with a web site. As part of their startup promotion, Qantas sold 100,000 airline tickets at a discount price, and the virtual airline's web site was swamped with would-be customers, job-seekers, and prospective vendors. The virtual airline sued Qantas, claiming that Qantas stole the virtual airline's livery and trademark.

• If you wish to create a virtual airline- Which Flightgear would be eager for you to do, Please do not base it on real life airlines to save copyright issues!

Association with terrorism

Claims have been made of the use of both flight simulators and virtual airlines as training devices for terrorist activities, although to date no conclusive link has ever been provided to indicate a situation where a virtual airline has provided flight simulation training to anyone involved in a terrorist activity. Jermaine Lindsay, one of the four 7 July 2005 London bombings, may have used flight simulators to practice flying an airliner, with an accusation that he was registered with a virtual airline. A person of the same name listed his nearest major airport as Heathrow and clocked up 30 hours in two months with SimAirline.net. The website later denied the member's linking with the bombing, and indicated it was working with the Metropolitan Police to establish whether its former member was the bomber. The website stated that it provides information about airlines and free add-on software for Microsoft Flight Simulator and does not provide flight instruction to its members. The 9/11 Commission in the US concluded in 2004 that those responsible for flying the planes into World Trade Center and Pentagon had used PC-based flight simulators for training. Despite the initial concerns of the involvement of virtual airlines in these terrorist activities, largely little has come from these claims to date and no changes have been noted as occurring in their operation as a result.

Underpopulation

So far, a mere estimate of one hundred people use the FlightGear multiplayer community. Despite this, more and more virtual airlines are emerging and cannot collect as many people as it wishes. Theories of "college students wanting power" and other ideas have been brought up several times inside the FlightGear forum, but has not been dealt with yet in the present. The underpopulation and overorganization issue has made the multiplayer networks confusing to use, possibly scaring users away to other simulators such as X-Plane and Microsoft Flight Simulator, where virtual airlines and multiplayer services are more organized and population-managed. Due to underpopulation, some airlines were forced to close due to hardship of managment, including former major airline Euroair.

Suggestions to address the underpopulation issue:

• Administration and management should be carefully controlled. For instance promoting ranks amongst members. Another management idea is to keep people in charge of certain sectors of the airline, for instance: route management, fleet management, advertising management, application/enrolment management, or whatever else is felt required for an airline. Over-administration is a big issue; In the past the main problem has been that the only people involved in a virtual airline was the creators, and one or two in-active users who didn't bother recruiting or flying- i.e. it was a "ghost airline" and nothing more. It is very important that the airline is not inundated with administrators and actually has a few pilots.
• Fleet size should be kept to the bare minimum, and suited to their routes and serving airports. Real life operators typically use a small fleet size to suit their operations. Ryanair for example operates a total of 146 Boeing 737-800's, as their only aircraft type. This suits their short-haul European destinations and therefore do not require additional fleet models.
• Routes should be also kept to a minimum, accurately maintained, well informed and carefully chosen. A rough guideline would be about five pilots for every route, so an airline with 15 pilots would be suited to an airline with three routes. Once an airline grows rapidly, routes can expand and increase when necessary (or decrease if you lose pilots), which is all part of the fun of expanding a network carefully and sufficiently. Try not to be over-enthusiastic and create a network of say 20 routes when you only have a small number of some 6 pilots, for instance.
• Airports should be chosen for their location, and to suit the fleet using it. Using a large amount of airport's clustered together in a small region is not a good idea, as it would (in real life) mean high airport charges, when airports should be shared and codeshared.
• Hub airports should not be used too often, 1 hub is suitable and looks better over the Multiplayer servers, if it is well used. ATC should be used at the hub airport, at least. This should be a well-modelled base for your flights.
• The website should contain detailed information, accurate maps, Weather data, Navigation data, Airport details, Fleet and suitably house community discussions. It should of course have simple instructions on how to join your airline, as well as an up-to-date list of pilots. It should be intended to attract as many budding pilots as possible!