5 October 2004
To All Of Our Pilots,

Alitalia Virtual had an outstanding opening month, but unfortunately, we were unable to reach our goals for the month of September, so our Air Canada expansion will have to wait. This was not unexpected, as summer is our busiest time of year, and we traditionally have a dropoff in activity every September. However, Korean Air Virtual will be opening later this month as our eighteenth virtual airline. This month's letter contains a great deal of information, so please take the time to read it carefully.

Downloads Server Update
Our downloads server will be back online later this month once new equipment is installed. A full report on the loss will be available next month. If you are not familiar with instructions to get around the issue, please read this announcement.

2005 Airline Expansion Announced
Although Korean Air, Air Canada, and British Airways have not yet been added to SimAirline.net, we have firmly established our virtual airline expansion for 2005. The list of six airlines is, in the order to be added, Icelandair, AOM French Airlines, LTU International Airways, Varig Brazilian Airlines, Thai Airways International, and Pan American World Airways (c. 1973). Further details are available here.

Virgin Nigeria Officially Announced
Virgin has announced yet another airline, its seventh. Virgin Nigeria will open in 2005 as the new national airline of Nigeria, and Virgin International Airways will be including their operations as soon as they commence.

Delta Dallas/Ft. Worth Hub Update
Due to overwhelming support for maintaining the Dallas/Ft. Worth hub at Delta Virtual, we will continue to offer Delta's flights from their Dallas/Ft. Worth hub as the flights are cut.

Lufthansa Codeshare Expanded to Include South African
Pilots can now fly Lufthansa flights between Frankfurt and South Africa through South African Virtual. Our expanded partnership with the Lufthansa FlightSim Pilots Group will allow pilots to fly Lufthansa's daily Frankfurt-Johannesburg-Cape Town-Johannesburg-Frankfurt flights.

Ansett Australia Codeshare Begins with ANA, Virgin Atlantic
Ansett Australia, once the second-largest Australian airline, now has some flights that can be flown as codeshare routes of ANA Virtual and Virgin International Airways. In cooperation with Ansett Australia Virtual, pilots can now fly Ansett Australia flights between Hong Kong and both Melbourne and Sydney, and between both Sydney and Tokyo Narita.

Hokkaido International Airlines Flights to be Added
Pilots will be able to fly Hokkaido International Airlines ("Air Do") flights as part of ANA Virtual later this month. Air Do flies numerous routes within Japan in conjunction with ANA.

Management Hiring for Two Positions
We are currently hiring for the positions of Aircraft Developer and Schedules Manager. Schedules Manager is an especially critical position this month. Further information is available here.

Thank you all for your patience with our downloads server over the past five weeks as it was unavailable. I did not receive complaints about it until a month later, so I'm very glad that most everyone understood and accepted the problem, which should not occur again. Hopefully we can reach our October goals so we can add Air Canada Virtual to our operations after Korean Air Virtual opens, likely later this month.

Aaron Robinson
aaron.robinson@simairline.net
AOL Instant Messenger: SimAirlineNet