SimAirline.net - Viewpoint - Closing

SimAirline.net Farewell Event

nospam@example.com (Nick Anderson) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 01:16:00 -0700

The following is a condensed version of Nick's full report, which can be found here. Text in italics was added by Aaron Robinson for when Nick was not present.

Hello everyone! For those of you who were unable to attend the Farewell Tour and Dinner in New York City last weekend, we have pictures and details for you!

I suppose I should give a little bit of background. After months of planning, research, and hundreds of emails back and forth trying to get people to attend the event, those of us who could finally arrived. Kyle Bjorklund, Whit Roberts, Aaron Robinson, David Velez, Steve Wismark, and I were in attendance. A few others backed out last minute and were missed!

On Friday, Kyle, Whit, Aaron, and Steve met in Newark at our hotel. They did a brief visit to the Airliners International Convention nearby, and then went out for dinner together. Newark is the home to the Portuguese community of the region, so there was plenty of good food and sangria.

The next morning we all met at the hotel and made our way over to the Convention, which if you've never been is absolutely worth going to if you're into airlines and collectibles. I love going and can never leave without picking up a few choice souvenirs (read about Aaron's and my trip to Dallas here).

The convention consists of a large ballroom or hall with hundreds of tables where exhibitors can display merchandise, models and collectibles. If you can even remotely imagine it, trust me, they have it. Everything from paper cups from some Finnish airline to large scale models of the British Airways 747. It's definitely a sight to see. We spent several hours exploring and buying some new toys before having lunch and heading into New York. (For the record I bought an American Airlines captain's hat. They didn't have Northwest, sadly; several safety cards I was missing, and a KLM 747 1/200 model for only $5! What a score!)

The (how do we put this nicely?) adventure on New York's lovely public transportation system from Newark to LaGuardia is definitely worth doing at least once if just for the experience. After an hour and a half, we made it out to LaGuardia, where Aaron had generously arranged a tour of the ramp and Delta facilities. How cool is that? It blew away my expectations by a million. We were briefly security checked before making our way through a secret door and into the baggage claim hall's inner sanctions. A tour of the operations offices where all the under-wing action takes place and a quick trip across the ramp brought us to the bag room.

I can tell you it's a miracle you ever see your bag again, or moreover, it's a testament to the fantastic employees that work for Delta. (I really can't stress that enough, I was amazed to see the spirit of family and good times among the employees, they really were just having a great time doing what they love. Inspiring.) A maze of conveyer belts, carts and guys chucking bags sort of dazes you. And then you see the computerized map showing the system status. Impressive if I do say so myself.

Back onto the ramp for an up-close and personal tour of a beautiful Delta MD-88 headed to Atlanta, a CRJ-900 going to…somewhere, and an A319 that had just arrived. Working the ramp is a lot harder than you expect it to be, it's complicated and systematic, with many things happening at the same time. Next we toured the Delta Ramp Tower, where Delta employees monitor and control aircraft on their ramp, dealing with things like delays to gate coordination and flight operations. Again, a great team of people up top and a fantastic view from the roof of the terminal.

Downstairs and into the Delta van for a drive across the airport to visit the Marine Air Terminal, LaGuardia's oldest and possibly most famous feature. This terminal was built in the late 1930s to support Pan American's flying boat operation. Today it is rather quiet, with only Delta Shuttle flying into and out of the terminal. Sad because it was once a beautiful and very important piece of aviation history, now almost empty and forgotten.

I can't explain every detail, but it was an amazing tour. I've always wanted to be on the other side of the jetway or other side of the glass and this was a fantastic opportunity to do that and meet some of the wonderful Delta family. Thank you to Aaron and the Delta employees for making that happen! Later in the day, we headed back into the city to meet up with David Velez at my favorite Italian place for dinner.

Excellent food as always, and a great place for conversation among some very interesting people. After dinner we piled into David's car and drove back to the hotel, where Aaron gave a behind-the-scenes tour of SimAirline.net's daily operations, something even I had never seen and was fascinated by. The work that went into this site is just ridiculous. A big thanks to Aaron and Ali for putting some much effort into making SimAirline.net what it was. Thank you!

The following day, Kyle, Whit, Aaron, and Steve went back into the city and visited the USS Intrepid Museum, which in addition to the aircraft carrier, features numerous military aircraft and spacecraft, a missile submarine, and a British Airways Concorde. Following lunch, the group split up, with some leaving for home and others exploring the city on their own.

A fantastic trip, amazing tour and I hope we can do it again someday. Next year's convention is in Portland so who knows? SimAirline.net Reunion 2011?

More pictures can be found here, credits to myself and Whit Roberts.

Closing Thoughts

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 23:59:00 -0700

It has been ten years since SimAirline.net first took to the skies. Back in 2000 I never intended to create such a broad and far-reaching group, but it was difficult over the years to say no. We have come a long way together, achieved a great deal, and have a great deal to be proud of. Thank you for being part of the journey and for your support along the way.

If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to read the thirty articles in the Closing Section of Viewpoint that share our history, our accomplishments, and what we had still hoped to do. Even more importantly, I hope that you will continue your flying career, whether as part of the flightsim community or in the real world. To help you in that pursuit, we have prepared a list of suggested VAs that may interest you.

In addition, the SimAirline.net website will remain online for years after closing, so your listing on our Pilot Roster will remain available so you can smoothly transition to a new organization. The final version of our website content will also remain available. At this time, we expect the Message Boards to remain open through at least the end of August. However, management email addresses are no longer being regularly monitored, so please use this contact form instead.

If you’re interested in staying connected with anyone at SimAirline.net, I strongly recommend joining our Facebook fan page and LinkedIn group. Both will allow pilots to continue to stay in touch, and the LinkedIn one in particular will be useful for those of you interested in pursuing an aviation career. As I do travel frequently, I plan to list my travel on those sites in the hopes of meeting you in person one day—please contact me if I am in your area! I of course hope that others will do the same.

We will be having a SimAirline.net farewell dinner and weekend in conjunction with this year’s Airliners International convention in the New York City area. The convention is Thursday, 12 August-Saturday, 14 August. Our events would likely be that Friday through Sunday. If you think you may be interested in participating, please fill out this form. A full plan of events will depend on the number of members that express interest in attending.

What will I be doing next? I don’t completely know yet. I hope to travel even more, volunteer and become more involved at church, spend more time outdoors, read history and literature, exercise on a regular basis, learn tennis and Latin again, and learn French for the first time. I am certainly happy to support other flightsim organizations in some way in the future. Of course, I’ll also be focused on developing my real-world career even further. You’ll actually be able to see me in the Environment section of Delta’s blog.

I of course have to share my appreciation for the following groups:
-our management team, who have supported me and been so critical to our success;
-our moderating team on the Message Boards, who have done a fine job of ensuring order and tranquility there;
-our roster testing team who helped in the development of our fine Pilot Roster System;
-the 86 pilots that over the years contributed $3500 to SimAirline.net from their own pockets to ensure a secure financial future; and
-all other individuals that have helped this organization over the last ten years.

Special thanks of course must go to Ali Abou-Zeid and Nick Anderson. Ali was the one who ultimately convinced me of the need to construct a management team to effectively manage 27 VAs, developed our Pilot Roster System; and painting many of our aircraft along the way. Nick was responsible for so many areas, though his talents shone brightest when it came to graphics design and enhancing the website’s appearance. He never hesitated to give me critical opinions and share his opposing views, while ultimately deferring when I disagreed. Both have been and will remain dear friends.

Finally, I would like to thank all our 6000 pilots from 120 countries who have together flown 185,000 flights throughout the years for their dedication and support, especially those who chose to stay through our final days. You have all pushed me to make this an even finer organization. I wish you nothing but the best for the future. Thank you for the memories and for the great ride.

Innovations - Multiple VAs

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:01:00 -0700

The final innovation I'd like to share with you seems simple now but was radical at the time: housing multiple virtual airlines within one system. This result was originally an accident. I created several VAs at once but never really planned to run them together—they were all just sister organizations. But when pilots started joining several at once, it quickly became apparent that there were major benefits towards running them together. Today there are many organizations that have adapted this model for their own use across the flightsim community, and we are proud to have been the leader and original innovator in this field.

SimAirline.net and I

nospam@example.com (Ali Abou-Zeid) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:59:00 -0700

I can't believe it's been eight years since I joined SimAirline.net. Eight eventful years, I must say. When I joined back in May 2002 the main reason was to fly for Swissair Virtual. I didn't know SimAirline.net was actually a group of virtual airlines and run by a single person with everything taking place manually, from website updates, roster, and PIREP processing to emails and selecting aircraft and scenery for download.

I couldn't possibly believe one person was doing all that. I thought to myself, "Aaron Robinson must be a retired person with nothing in life to do." Later I discovered he was actually very close to my age with only two years difference with studies and life to enjoy. So, I thought to myself, since he can do it, I could help out and make this place a much bigger place.

First, there needed to be means of communication, and the Message Boards had just opened after being shut down for lack of usage. I grabbed the opportunity and became one of the most active voices there, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I only knew I wanted to fly for Swissair, and I couldn't do it in real life, so I could do it at least on my computer. For me, flying has been a dream since I was four years old; back then I was 20.

Second, a few years before joining I had come up with my own virtual airline and started repainting aircraft, a skill I had developed that proved crucial to getting things moving at SimAirline.net with a lot of aircraft missing from some of our virtual airlines.

In August, three months after I had joined, the management team was ready to take over some of the duties previously held by Aaron to help out expand the organization and make it a better place for our pilots. Much of that had been discussed and known already.

I remember throughout the time, until today, I tell people what I do on my computer in the virtual skies, and refer them to SimAirline.net's website and show them my duties and explain the details of how things actually work. I even wrote that in my resume, which helped earn me an opportunity to help manage an airshow held in Sharm El-Sheikh Airport here in Egypt.

As the days passed by, I started learning, developing and acquiring flying skills and knowledge with the hope that one day I'd become a real pilot and use them. I had decided to give this organization as much as I could, and the outcome of this is the Roster System, which took over a year to develop (see the April 2007 issue of Latitude). Honestly, there was a lot more planned for the Roster System than what you actually see. However, I'm glad enough that since the release of version 1.1.0 on 12 March 2009, which included major bug fixes, a major rewrite to the code to include documented error messages instead of the normal "Contact Aaron Robinson or Ali Abou-Zeid" message, there has not been a single error message logged into the system, and the errors that used to delay or mess up the monthly overhaul of the roster were all fixed.

A few days after the release of the roster system in April 2006, my life changed completely. As mentioned in the Latitude issue above, I entered the army and was for 14 months away every other week from any means of communication outside the army camp site. The other week I was at work, so there was no enough time to spend for SimAirline.net. Here time zones played a major factor: while before, I could stay up late to match Aaron's time zone and discuss organization issues and make decisions together, during army service I had to wake up at 5 every morning, whether I was going to the army or work, so it was almost impossible to communicate with Aaron. We had to use SMS for urgent matters, otherwise email was our only means of communication.

I finished the army service in June 2007, and by late July 2007 I was in South Africa earning my Private Pilot License, and since then, the flying career took hold of me, my time, my efforts, and my thinking. I have excelled in each and every single aspect of my flying to this day, be it theory, practical knowledge, or general knowledge. And all that because I started it here at SimAirline.net, which I unfortunately had to put aside for a while. For those who did not read my post on the Message Boards, I'm now a commercial pilot with a type-rating on Airbus A320 as co-pilot, and flying for a new private Egyptian airline called Nile Air.

All of that contributed to the decision to close SimAirline.net this month, as I didn't have enough time to fix the bugs, and add features to the roster system, as well as the reasons Aaron had mentioned in his announcement.

It was a pleasure being a major part of SimAirline.net and working along side Aaron, and many others. I have definitely learned a lot, not only flying related, but it has been a great environment and learning experience.

As a final word, I would like to again apologize to all those who are affected by the closure of SimAirline.net, as I was a part of why this is taking place. As much as I feel guilty for it, I hope you understand it was the dream to fly that led me to step back and focus on my flying. It all paid off as I had been praised for my flying skills from each and every single instructor with whom I have flown, including my A320 type-rating instructor who didn't believe himself when he saw me flying as well as the chief pilot in the company I work for. He complimented my flying skills by questioning if the autopilot was still on as I was flying precisely on final approach with autothrust off.

For all those who have helped keep this organization what it is today, pilots, management, and last but not at all least Aaron, I say, thank you for everything.

SimAirline.net History - 2009

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:14:00 -0700

A Difficult Year
2009 was a very difficult year for the world's airlines, for the flightsim community, and for SimAirline.net. The economic collapse forced airlines in the real world to contract operations further after 2008's oil spike. The flightsim community saw Microsoft closing the Flight Simulator line from future development and Avsim being hacked and unavailable for months (it has still not fully recovered). Locally, I had a difficult time moving from St. Paul to Atlanta for Delta, experienced yet another computer crash, and ultimately decided to close SimAirline.net.

Around the World
-Air Canada CEO Montie Brewer is replaced by Calvin Rovinescu, who was part of Air Canada's bankruptcy restructuring, raising fears of a second filing.
-Alaska expands eastward in the largest push in years, adding Atlanta, Austin, and Houston.
-Alitalia is relaunched following its merger with Air One.
-ANA becomes the largest 787 customer after ordering five more aircraft and after Qantas reduces its order.
-British Airways reaches an agreement to merge with Iberia after a year and a half of negotiations and many more years of speculation.
-Continental Connection partner Colgan Air has a crash in Buffalo, raising industry concerns about pilot fatigue and training.
-Copa follows Continental by departing SkyTeam, but does not commit to joining Star Alliance.
-Delta and Northwest begin 'crossfleeting,' trading aircraft between markets as the first phase of the merger.
-Dragonair begins service to nearby (less than 100 miles away) Guangzhou, China's third largest city.
-Emirates becomes the world's largest 777 operator after taking its 78th of 106 orders.
-Frontier is bought by Republic Airways Holdings and emerges from bankruptcy.
-Hawaiian celebrates its 80th anniversary.
-KLM, the world's oldest airline operating with the same name, turns 90.
-Korean Air becomes the second passenger airline to order the 747-8I.
-South African regional partner Airlink temporarily grounds its Jetstream 41 after three accidents.
-Thai moves out of Bangkok Don Muang permanently and centers all operations at Suvarnabhumi.
-Virgin America adds three new destinations: Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, and Orange County.
-Virgin Atlantic celebrates 25 years of operations with a "Still Red Hot" advertising campaign.
-Virgin Blue's longhaul subsidiary V Australia begins service after a Boeing strike delays initial deliveries.
-Virgin Nigeria announces plans to rebrand as Nigerian Eagle after Virgin announces plans to pull out.

Farewell from the Red Tail!

nospam@example.com (Nick Anderson) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:04:00 -0700

This article is a sad one for me to write, as I always planned to be with SimAirline.net forever. Well, maybe not forever, but I certainly didn't have a time limit in mind. However, this comes at a good time for me personally, as over the last two years, I've moved across the country, finished high school, and begun a simultaneous career in Aviation Engineering at the University of Iowa (I get to play with fighter jets and big boy sims), while taking five classes on top of that. It's an extremely demanding schedule that leaves little time for homework, much less any leftover to spend flying the virtual skies. That's something that, despite all my recent success, I've been missing, but I get to do a lot of flying at work, which I suppose works out in the end.

I want to take a few minutes to share some of the goals or projects I had planned or accomplished over the years. I've now spent six years on the management team at SimAirline.net and ended as the third most senior member, only behind Aaron and Ali. I've held nine different positions (and Moderator for….four of those?) that I can recall. The most recently given up was Frontier Manager, which I traded in for Continental Manager a few years back. Over those six years I've been a part of some truly amazing projects, including new graphics, new terminal maps, route maps, new website, new roster system, two new versions of the Message Boards, and most importantly, I've made some fantastic friends whom I know I'll keep in touch with forever. Aaron has been an inspiration in my life and pushed me to greater and greater heights, and I want to publicly thank him for everything he's done for me over the years. Aaron, I wouldn't be where I am without you. Thank you so much.

Two projects stick out in my mind as my all-time favorites: the new terminal maps and the historical Northwest Virtual were a blast to work on, and although we never finalized or opened historical Northwest Virtual, the research was fascinating. The terminal maps were hard work and tedious, but provided an excellent opportunity to study real world operations of airlines and airports (something that is already coming in handy in my career), as well as the graphic design skills necessary to produce the images that has already more than proved its worth.

Northwest, as most of you probably know, is my favorite airline. It's my baby and the day I heard that it was disappearing into Delta was heart-breaking, like a family member dying. Haha, maybe not that extreme but it wasn't a good day. It was with a heavy heart that I discussed Northwest Virtual's future with Aaron but there was an upside! We decided to reincarnate Northwest into it's glory days, the Northwest I will always remember, into historical Northwest. Based in the mid-1990s, it would have included the iconic Northwest 747 Classics, DC-10s, 727s, and more than 150 DC-9s, possibly the greatest airplane ever. We conducted hours and hours of research and even met in person twice to go over plans, graphs, schedules, etc. Although time was never on our side and we never got to finish historical Northwest, it will live on in my heart until the end of time. It will never be Delta to me, it's always going to be Northwest.

I've probably rambled enough but I want to post some statistics. In the past six years…
I've flown 1400 flights and almost 6000 hours, a distance of now over 3 million miles on over 120 world airlines, in 41 different commercial aircraft covering every known major type ever operated.
Of those 1400 flights, 25% were flown on Northwest Airlines, nearly 400 flights on the world's best.
Of those 1400 flights, I landed for the 48th time in Minneapolis/St. Paul just a few months ago.
Of those 1400 flights, I've used runway 22R in Newark, 52 times.
Of those 1400 flights, 165 were on Airbus A32X series.
Of those 1400 flights, 548 were on a Boeing airplane.
Of those 1400 flights, 101 were on a 747-400.
Oh, and I'm about to post my 10,000th post on the message boards.

Those are some pretty staggering numbers and were interesting to calculate from years' worth of data and memories.

To all of you who made the past six years possible, I want to thank you for some of the best times of my life. It's been an amazing ride and it wouldn't have been the same without you! Here's to SimAirline.net! This is one redtail, signing off, one last time.

Wish List - 36 VAs

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:41:43 -0700

One definite problem with limiting ourselves to 32 virtual airlines over the years is that it handcuffs us from adding new airlines that have done well for themselves around the world. Over the last year or two, I often wondered what we might choose as additional VAs should we make it to 32. Thirty-six was the logical next number to expand to because of our website design and layout. Here's a look at a few of the airlines I had been dreaming of adding.

Asia - AirAsia
Tony Fernandes' AirAsia has been one of the fastest growing airlines in the last few years and is quickly becoming a pan-ASEAN airline. With hubs in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, Vietnam, and others forthcoming, AirAsia would have offered us a broader and fast-growing network in the region and over 20 new destinations.

Europe - Iberia, Norwegian, or SAS
See the Undecided section here.

Latin America - LAN
Our Latin American network is centered around three (would-be four) virtual airlines: the unlaunched Aeromexico, Copa in Panama and Colombia, Pan American in the Caribbean and Panama, and Varig, the largest, in Brazil. While Brazil makes up half the continent's area and population, it still leaves half of South America uncovered. LAN, like AirAsia, has turned into a multinational airline. Expanding beyond its Chilean roots, it now has airlines in Argentina, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Peru.

North America - Great Lakes Airlines
When you have nine virtual airlines in the U.S., what else could be left to add? Smaller cities that those airlines can't reach. Great Lakes Airlines flies primarily Essential Air Service (EAS) routes to smaller airports around the country and despite its name, has little left to do with the Great Lakes. With EAS service connecting to larger airlines in eight major airports, Great Lakes would have added over 40 new cities in small-town America to our route map.

My Experience with SimAirline.net

nospam@example.com (Dennis Negrón) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:59:00 -0700

When I joined SimAirline.net back in 2006, I was an inexperienced flight simmer who was just looking for something new to do. Never did I imagine that in June of that year I would start a virtual career that would soon lead me towards becoming an even bigger airline enthusiast as well as part of management.

My decision to join was based on my experience flying with Continental to and from Europe the previous year. I wanted to fly real-life scheduled flights of the airline and stumbled across Continental Virtual. As soon as I joined, I did not know what I was getting myself into nor what I was doing, but it wasn't long before I finally got the hang of it. Shortly after joining, the Copa Manager departed and I wanted to help out, not only because I wanted to be part of management but because it would give me a reason to keep flying in the virtual skies. So after a brief period as an Assistant VA Manager, I was appointed as the new Copa Manager. My duties also included helping testing other fleets for FSX compatibility.

It was soon after that I decided that one VA manager position isn't enough, and it coincided with Paul Anderson's departure from management (he was the Delta Virtual manager at the time) and Ali's reduction of virtual airlines. I had been keeping an eye out for Emirates for some time and thought it would be perfect to apply for it. Paul, on the other hand, was to be Aeroflot Virtual's manager and I also applied for it. Thus, I became Emirates' and Aeroflot's new managers, though the latter never opened.

My duties did not change much though: continued FSX compatibility testing, searching for liveries, and adding more aircraft as Emirates became an active airline with the Boeing 777-200LR and Airbus A380 entering the fleet.

When Aaron gave us the message that SimAirline.net would be closed, even though I was heartbroken, I knew that it was the right thing to do. I soon realized that it had been three years since I had joined and real life had started getting in the way. I was swamped with college courses and so many tests I often had to delay projects and, since then, stop flying altogether. Fellow members of management also had similar stories and by an unanimous decision we agreed to follow Aaron's request.

These three years here have changed me. They have opened my eyes and made my love for aviation even greater. However, SimAirline.net was more than just a hobby; it was a community, it was a home, it was a family. It sure is sad to see it go, but all good things must come to an end. I plan to remain on board until the very last day and hope to see some of you at the Airliners International convention in the New York City area this August.

Before I close this letter, I'd like to thank Aaron for giving me the opportunity to work alongside him these past years. It has been a privilege and an honor to have been serving as one of the members of management.

See you around in the virtual skies!

SimAirline.net History - 2008

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:18:05 -0700

Website Overhauls
This year we made numerous design changes to our websites, led by Nick Anderson's graphic design skills. First, we released a new banner for the main SimAirline.net site featuring the tails of our airlines, a much nicer look. As an additional part of this, we redesigned many of our virtual airlines' sites. Third, we upgraded our Message Boards to a new version, eliminating the spam problem (that is, until spammers became ever smarter). In addition, we changed Virgin International Airways' name to Virgin Virtual, a name that had lasted since SimAirline.net began eight years prior. Finally, we added Aeroflot's Tu-144 flights to Concorde Virtual and Aero República to Copa Virtual.

Latitude Transitions to Viewpoint
After recognizing that Latitude took up too much of our resources, we transitioned this year to Viewpoint, named after one section in Latitude. In 2008 we had 231 articles in Viewpoint and the new addition did a great job of readily communicating with our pilots vs. the monthly Latitude format.

Delta-Northwest Merger Announced
Perhaps the biggest piece of news of the year was the Delta-Northwest merger, which would create the world's largest airline. This was especially complicated for us since it involved two of our core VAs. How would we handle the merger on our side? What would end up happening to Northwest Virtual? As we had in prior such situations, we stressed our commitment to both brands whatever happens in the real world.

Timetable Program Released
Late in the year we released our long-planned timetable application of SimAirline.net-specific flights. This allowed pilots to look at schedules formerly on our website all at the same time, organize or filter them as desired, and made updating the schedules far easier for us.

EU-U.S. Open Skies
After years of negotiation, the European Union and U.S. finally reached an open skies agreement in 2007, going into effect in 2008. The biggest impact to U.S. carriers (save American and United) was the ability to enter London Heathrow. On the first day, all four touched down at Heathrow.

Around the World
-Air Canada retires both its 767-200/200ER and A340-300 fleets.
-Air Tahiti Nui celebrates ten years of service.
-Alaska and Horizon begin new service to eight cities.
-Alitalia files for bankruptcy after just one profitable year in its history.
-ANA becomes the first airline to order the Mitsubishi Regional Jet.
-British Airways has yet another dramatic year: a 777 crash-landing at Heathrow, opening Terminal 5 with numerous problems, launching all-business subsidiary OpenSkies, and merger talks with Qantas.
-Continental holds merger talks with United, but eventually opts to leave SkyTeam for Star Alliance and enter a close marketing relationship with United.
-Copa adds an additional five destinations.
-Emirates begins flying the A380 and also announces another mega-order: 30 A330s and 30 A350s.
-Frontier files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
-Hawaiian greatly expands its intra-island flying after rival Aloha Airlines goes out of business.
-Cathay Pacific returns its A340-600s after a brief six-year service history.
-Icelandair is forced to contract after the country's economy collapses.
-KLM cityhopper begins replacing its Fokker fleet with the introduction of the E-190.
-Korean Air resumes service to South American with a flight to Sao Paulo via Los Angeles.
-Pan Am's name retires from the skies after Boston-Maine Airways operating as Pan Am Clipper Connection closes.
-South African Express begins flying the CRJ-700.
-Thai posts its first annual loss in 41 years.
-Varig ends intercontinental service.
-Virgin America's second year sees it begin service on four new routes.
-Virgin Atlantic becomes the first airline to test biofuels.
-Virgin Blue's new E-170s and E-190s allow it to expand into six new smaller Australian cities.
-Virgin Nigeria refocuses away from longhaul operations towards an intra-African network.

Innovations - Terminal Maps

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:05:08 -0700

SimAirline.net is one of the few organizations to provide guidance on not just where to fly, but where to park as well. Over the years we developed over 100 terminal maps, which covered nearly 80% of our pilots' destinations. Nick Anderson took these maps to a new level in 2007 by expanding our research and visibility to the gate level. For more on how Nick developed the new design, see the April 2007 issue of Latitude.

Why We're Closing

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:42:15 -0700

Looking back on my original closing announcement, I realize that I didn’t fully explain my reasons for wanting to close SimAirline.net, mostly because I didn’t want to focus too much on the why. However, I realize now that it would not be fair to not fully elaborate. The original text is bolded, and then I’ve expanded on it in regular style.

I will no doubt have to step back at some point in the future, whether for career, education, or family reasons. It would be better to stop on my own terms rather than be forced into it. I can recognize when someone is on the way out from the management team. I can see that in myself and don't think it’s respectful to you to lead an organization that I'm less than fully committed to. I in fact had this in the back of my mind for several years, but finally recognized last fall that it was time to let go.

SimAirline.net was a fine use of my time as a hobby when I was not in the workforce and hoping to someday join the airline industry. As part of it today, I now have an unbalanced life—I leave my airline job during the day for a virtual airline job at night. As some of you know, I work in environmental strategy at Delta, where I try to support, defend, and ensure the airline industry’s future existence. As you can imagine, the intellectual challenge of and relationships around this objective are far greater than anything a virtual airline could possible provide. As a result, SimAirline.net was no longer critical to fulfill my airline passion like it had in the past because I had finally made it into a profession rather than only a hobby.

I want to be able to take trips and do other things in life without feeling guilty or encumbered by SimAirline.net. Today I am forcibly tied to running SimAirline.net. Over the last twelve months, I have flown160,000 miles on over 100 flights. (By comparison, prior to joining Northwest I flew 10,000 miles a year.) That’s over an hour a day on the aircraft alone, to say nothing of time at destinations. Last summer I traveled to Europe for work several times, and often returned after just day. Why not stay and enjoy some time there? I felt behind in my work on SimAirline.net, and felt compelled to try to catch up.

As our airlines and projects have gotten bigger and more complicated, our management team has shrunk, leaving a gap in capability. This gap has been unfilled and worsening for the last three years. In addition, we have not been available to finish the Pilot Roster System. Finally, Avsim's hacking this year was another major blow and put a lot of things into perspective for me. I would like to close by talking about legal issues. We have had three virtual airlines closed or altered in some way after contact from their real-life counterparts (US Airways, Alaska, Air Berlin). With a career in the airline industry now, continuing to exposing myself to legal risks that could damage my professional reputation and future career prospects is not something that I am willing to do.

I hope this gives you some additional insight into my thinking, and I am very thankful for everyone that has emailed me with their appreciation of the organization and understanding of my decision.

Wish List - 32 VAs

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 03:16:32 -0700

One of our unfulfilled goals was to expand our reach to 32 virtual airlines. We reached 27. First announced in 2006, here's a look at what the remaining five would have been.

Aeroflot Russian Airlines
We decided early on that we needed airlines in China, India, and Russia to round out our portfolio of VAs. For Russia, is there really any other option? Once the largest airline in the world, Aeroflot is stronger internationally than domestically, but a new merger and a refocus eastward is rapidly changing that position. A special feature would of course been the inclusion of Soviet/Russian airliners such as the Il-86, Il-96, Tu-134, Tu-154, and Superjet 100. As a bonus, we added the Tu-144 "Konkordski" in 2008.

Aeromexico
The largest and primary international airline in Mexico would have been our final addition in the Western Hemisphere. Continental actually serves more airports in Mexico than any native carriers, but Aeromexico still would have offered new longhaul operations from the country, though admittedly few compared to other international carriers. Due to Mexico City's high altitude, services to Shanghai and Tokyo fly westbound via Tijuana. Also included would have been regional affiliate Aeromexico Connect.

China Southern Airlines
After consolidation early in the decade, China had shrunk down to three major state-owned carriers (Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern) and one privately held, Hainan Airlines. China Eastern was and still is the weak sister, so we were deciding between Air China and China Southern. In the end we selected China Southern for its larger size, larger and more varied domestic network, future SkyTeam membership (certainty of schedule availability), and better livery.

Jet Airways
India had several good options to choose from: Air India, Air Deccan, Air Sahara, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, or the new upstarts like IndiGo, Kingfisher, and SpiceJet. Since our decision, Air India bought Indian, Jet Airways bought Air Sahara, and Kingfisher bought Air Deccan. We selected Jet Airways because at the time it was successful, well-managed, poised for growth, and had the largest share of the domestic market. Four years later, these are all the same.

Undecided
Originally touted as a German replacement for Air Berlin, we later softened to call it a European replacement. The fact is that there are very few other airlines of size in Germany that were options. Lufthansa doesn't allow virtual airlines (FS Pilot Group, our codeshare partner, is not branded as such), and Air Berlin gobbled up other domestic competitors in the years since (dba, LTU, and almost Condor). What's left? Maybe Lufthansa-owned Germanwings or one of the charter airlines, but unfortunately very little. Thanks to our Lufthansa codeshare and Pan American Berlin operations, we still had a good German presence.

As a result, we looked beyond Germany. Air Berlin was great because it gave us a major European LCC (the third largest), hubs in Spain as well as Germany, and smaller bases in nearby Austria and Switzerland. The names I had in mind for our final European VA were Iberia, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and SAS. Iberia had the benefits of size, growth, and an expected merger with British Airways. Norwegian Air Shuttle, the least known of the group, is now Europe's fourth largest LCC and has hubs around Scandinavia and Poland. SAS of course is a Scandinavian icon, but has the downside of being a struggling entity today and several other VAs. Ultimately, I think the preferred order would have been Norwegian, Iberia, then SAS.

Innovations - Route Maps

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:42:00 -0700

One of our more recent innovations was our route maps. While some virtual airlines borrowed route maps from their real-life counterpart, we knew that was never a viable option for us. With numerous discontinued routes and dozens of VAs, we needed a standard format that we could design and edit ourselves.

After years of research into possible software options, we made it work. The final product required the maps to progress across six different programs and made selecting flights (and viewing our vast networks) even easier.

Wish List - More Codeshares

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 20:34:00 -0700

Throughout the years we have had a few successful codeshare partnerships with other virtual airlines. Unfortunately, that only remained at a few. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango—securing a partnership with another virtual airline was not easy. A few years ago I did a study and found that there were about 100 (other) airlines in the world that our airlines codeshared with. But this is one area we were sadly never able to develop to its full potential. Consider that we needed all of the following to happen:
-A VA based on airline X to be currently running
-The VA must be of sufficient quality for us to consider
-The VA must have a way to contact its management (yes, this was often an obstacle)
-The VA's management must reply to our inquiry (troubling why this was a problem)
-We must reach an agreement on codesharing

As you can see, it was not an easy feat!

SimAirline.net History - 2007

nospam@example.com (Aaron Robinson) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 21:35:00 -0700

Latitude Launches
The biggest development of the year was the launch of Latitude, our monthly in-flight magazine. We published twelve issues of the highly popular magazine before it we replaced by Viewpoint. Another leading contender for the name was Centerline, but it faced a language drawback: Centerline or the British spelling, Centreline? Ultimately, the word latitude was chosen because it reflects well on SimAirline.net’s core value, offering an organization centered around freedom of choices.

Retired Aircraft Rejoin; Route Maps Added
This year we started offering retired aircraft on our Discontinued Flights. In the past we had offered these flights but with their modern equivalents. We started with four additions: Continental DC-10s (replaced by the 767-400ER), Delta 727-200s (737-800), and Northwest RJ85s and DC-10s (just recently retired), and expanded a great deal since then. Today retired aircraft are offered at fourteen of our virtual airlines. In addition, we began adding route maps to all of our virtual airlines.

Coming and Going
In late 2006 Air Berlin contacted us with concerns over our use of their name and logos. Their preference was that we use neither at all, and so, in accordance with their wishes, we closed the virtual airline at the end of January. We had originally planned to have a replacement virtual airline in Germany to fill the void, but it never opened. Also in 2007, we opened Frontier Virtual and Hong Kong Virtual, based on Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. This would end up being our last new opening.

Virgin Express flew its last flight in March as it completed its merger to form Brussels Airlines, but a new Virgin debuted: Virgin America started flying over the U.S. skies in August.

Around the World
-Air Canada is sued by Toronto rival Porter Airlines, who claims that Air Canada’s regional service agreement with Air Canada Jazz is an antitrust violation following Jazz's lawsuit contending that Toronto City Centre Airport owner evicted Jazz when it opened Porter.
-Air Tahiti Nui founder and former CEO Nelson Lévy dies of a heart attack on 1 July at the age of 58.
-Alaska's former CEO Bruce Kennedy, who was responsible for much of the airline's post-deregulation growth, is killed in an airplane crash.
-Alitalia's privatization process drags on throughout the year with no conclusion reached.
-ANA is selected as Air Transport World's Airline of the Year for its "[transformation] into a dynamic and profitable airline."
-British Airways franchise partners BMED amd GB Airways are bought by bmi and easyJet, respectively.
-Cathay Pacific begins flying the first of 30777-300ERs.
-Continental announces plans to expand its Cleveland hub by 40% and 20 destinations over the next two years, including transatlantic service to Paris.
-Copa follows strategic partner and former minority owner Continental into SkyTeam.
-Delta has an eventful year: it finishes fighting off a hostile takeover bid from US Airways, emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 30 April (unveiling a new corporate image at the same time), and introduces former Northwest CEO Richard Anderson as its new leader.
-Emirates announces yet another major order, this time at the Dubai Air Show: 70 A350s with 50 options, 11 A380s, and 12 777-300ERs.
-Frontier selects eventual owner Republic to operate 17 E-170s as Frontier JetExpress.
-Hawaiian receives $80 million in damages from Mesa Airlines, owner of interisland carrier go! after a judge rules that Mesa violated a confidentiality agreement when considering investing in Hawaiian, using the information to help launch go!
-Icelandair celebrates its 70th anniversary.
-KLM CEO Leo van Wijk departs to become Chairman of SkyTeam and is replaced by Peter Hartman.
-Korean Air announces plans to start Jin Air, a low-cost carrier designed to compete with high-speed rail.
-Northwest emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 31 May and purchases a minority stake in Midwest Airlines.
-South African retires its last 747, although the aircraft would return to temporary service a few years later.
-Thai moves some operating back to Bangkok's recently-closed Don Muang Airport after it is reopened due to overcrowding and Suvarnabhumi.
-Varig is forced out of Star Alliance after no longer fulfilling membership conditions and is bought by low-fare airline GOL.
-Virgin Atlantic orders its first twinjets: 15 787-9s with options for an additional 20 787s.
-Virgin Blue announces plans for its new longhaul arm: V Australia will launch with 7 777-300ERs.
-Virgin Nigeria orders 8 E-170s and 2 E-190s to replace its 737s and Fokker 50s.