May 2022 VA Update

Hello Pilots,

This news update brings some more airline news and development updates.

Airline News

The SkyTeam alliance has suspended ties with Aeroflot, as a result Aeroflot and its subsidiaries will be removed from the VA on May 1st 2022. When the suspension has been lifted these airlines will be returned to the VA.

Etihad subsidiary Air Serbia has been added to the VA and will provide more routes to and from Southeastern Europe.

Development Updates

All airlines have received their new summer schedules except for cases where there are still significant COVID related service disruptions. If there are routes missing please let us know via support ticket, and we will add these routes as soon as possible.

We are working on improving gate information, if you would to help collaborate on gathering gate information for airports please let us know by creating a collaboration type support ticket. We will provide a document that can be filled out and imported to help improve our coverage.

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 at 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. The next one is scheduled for the 15th of May, please check the Events page for more details, we hope to see you there! Please let us know via Discord and the forums 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.

Tour updates

We continue to roll out tour updates, to keep tours fresh. This month will see the retirement of the Martinair Tour, 777 Tour, 787 Tour, and A350 Tour. If you have any suggestions regarding tours which you would like to see please let us know.

The monthly tour takes you across South East asia. A number of tours are currently in the process of being reworked and for more updates on retiring tours please check the Event and Tours section on the homepage.

Closing words

As always if you have any suggestions please let us know.

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