I’ve been flying Simfly for a while now, took a little break, but picking it back up again. I’m wondering if it would be a good idea for Simfly to institute a PAX bonus for pilots that fly cat 1 and 2 planes into cat 1 and 2 airports, along with cat 3 planes into cat 3 airports. Seems to me alot of pilots, myself included, are seeking cat 4 airports to maximize profits, but we are missing out on great smaller airports that need attention also. Right now, I don’t see much point in purchasing a smaller airport, knowing that there is probably a cat 4 nearby that offers a 60/40 split that will get most of the traffic. In addition to that we’ll get to fly the smaller GA planes and make some pax doing it.
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I like the idea in principle.
I think until SimFly grows significantly the smaller airports are going to be largely unused without incentives.
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I understand the idea of incentives for smaller airports, and I agree that without them many CAT 1 and CAT 2 airports will stay underused.
However, from my point of view, the bigger issue is not only airport categories, but how profits are generated depending on the type of flying.
Right now, long-range airliner routes are extremely profitable compared to the actual effort required. In many cases, you start the aircraft, take off, engage the autopilot, and after that it’s mostly passive flying. Personally, just yesterday I flew a long-haul liner flight, spent only a few minutes setting up the aircraft, and made a good profit with relatively little workload.
On the other hand, shorter flights — especially GA or regional operations, including flights between smaller airports — are often much more demanding. You actually fly the aircraft, manage navigation more actively, deal with shorter runways, weather, and more challenging takeoffs and landings. These flights can take one or two hours and still generate very little income compared to long-haul operations.
Also, if we look at real-world aviation numbers, General Aviation is actually the majority of aviation worldwide. There are roughly 28,000–32,000 commercial aircraft globally, but around 300,000 General Aviation aircraft. Most of aviation activity in terms of aircraft numbers happens outside large airline operations.
Because of this, I believe GA flying and operations into smaller airports should be more valued and rewarded. Otherwise, most pilots will logically continue to focus on CAT 4 airports and long-range routes, not because they prefer them, but because the system rewards them more.
SimFly is a great idea overall, but in my opinion the aviation balance — especially between airliners and smaller aircraft — still needs refinement.
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