News

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we are introducing historical routes, and will share some additional VA updates.

Historical routes

Today, we are pleased to announce a new experimental feature on oneworld virtual: "Historical routes". Our new historical routes section is a curated collection of flights that recreate routes from years past. Thanks to pilot Andrew V for gathering information about historical routes and fleets and sharing this information with us!

What historical routes are currently available?

We are starting this experiment with American Airlines, for which we have curated a collection its 2001 routes. This will allow you to fly aircraft such as the Boeing 717, Fokker 100, MD-82, and the BAe JetStream 32.

Why the 2001 American Airlines schedule?

Late 2001/early 2002 was an interesting time for American Airlines. AAL had recently purchased TWA and its route network, many older aircraft were being phased out in favor of more fuel efficient aircraft, and of course, 9/11 had recently occurred which changed the airline industry and travel as a whole.

Upon acquisition of TWA and its route network, AAL gained many new gates and flights to and from St. Louis Missouri and San Juan Puerto Rico. AAL had intended STL to become a feeder hub to take pressure off of ORD and DFW but this changed as all air travel was drastically reduced for a period of time. At that time, AAL had not yet merged with US Airways. AAL's major focus hubs were BOS, DFW, JFK, LAX, MIA, ORD and STL. Over 4,000 historical routes have been manually entered to create the oneworld virtual historical flight database.

In the fleet hangar, AAL was moving away from, but still flying, the MD-82, 727, A300, MD-11 and F-100. Having acquired the 717's and many smaller sized aircraft from TWA, late 2001 represented an airframe transition time for AAL. As this period included some aircraft no longer flown by AAL today, we have updated the historical aircraft database to represent some notable historical additions.

How can I book a historical flight?

Booking historical routes is currently only possible in the new booking experience announced in the last news post. Once you have enabled the new booking experience, you can simply click on "Book a historical route" to book a flight.

You can also find the historical fleet and historical routes in the Operations menu. Please note that the fleet and routes are still currently in progress and it may not be possible to book a route with all aircraft listed on this page.

Experimental status

We are releasing this as an experimental feature since this is a new feature, but we are also trying to gather how much interest there is in this feature. If this feature is popular, we may add additional airlines and routes.

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.

Tours and aircraft substitutions

Historical flights do not currently count towards tour progress, and there are no tours for historical routes. Please also be aware that there are different aircraft substitutions for historical routes. Please use the aircraft substitutions widget on the briefing page to check your aircraft substitution. In general, we only allow aircraft substitutions between the same type, for example substituting an MD-82 with an MD-83.

Airline updates

With Qatar Airways' investment in Virgin Australia, the latter airline has moved over to oneworld virtual from our sister VA SkyTeam Virtual. You can now book routes using Virgin Australia. We are still working on incorporating Virgin Australia into various tours and expect to have more tours that include Virgin Australia in the next few months.

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 will take you across Africa and Australia. 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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.

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 Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

Hello pilots,

In this month's news update we will share some VA and airline updates.

Airline updates

Virgin Australia will be added to the VA since this airline is further integrated with oneworld alliance members. New tours will be introduced once the airline has been added.

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 original long haul tour will be retired in the middle of June, which gives you approximately 45 days to still complete the tour. This is due to the introduction of the Long Haul Tour 2025, which can already be completed.

The monthly tour takes you across the central 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. 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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

Spring Japan will be added to the VA within the next few days as part of the JAL group.

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 China. 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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

Hawaiian Airlines has been added to the VA following its acquisition by the Alaskan Airlines group. Hawaiian Airlines adds significantly more connections to, from, and between the Hawaiian islands.

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 across Southern 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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 monthly tour takes you across the North-Western 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. 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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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

Qatar Airways has taken a 25% in the South African airline Airlink. This airline has been added and adds more routes and unique destinations throughout southern Africa. The Hawaiian Airlines acquisition by the Alaska Airlines group has passed most legal hurdles. We expect to integrate Hawaiian Airlines in the VA in Q4 of this year when the acquisition is finalized.

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

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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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.

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/5wMqZnpS2w.

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.

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 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. 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.

Tour updates

We have introduced a new tour category: Hub tours. These tours will rotate throughout different hubs every 12-18 months. 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 the Western US and Hawaii. 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.