1 November 2004
To All Of Our Pilots,

Although we had an unusually high dropoff in activity during September, we rebounded very well in October, but unfortunately, not well enough to reach our goals for our Air Canada expansion. Korean Air Virtual opened this month and saw good initial results, while our previous expansion, Alitalia Virtual, continued to do well. With the change from daylight saving time in Europe and North America yesterday, most of our flight schedules changed, so please be sure to update your downloadable timetables or check our updated versions. Please also note that if you flew a flight before the time zone changes (31 October), you should use the PIREP linked to at the top of the PIREP form (for all airlines except Virgin Express).

Downloads Server Update
Our downloads server faced some further delays in being restored, but we do expect it to be back within the next few days. We apologize again for the inconvenience over the last two months. If you are not familiar with instructions to get around the issue, please read this announcement. The restored downloads server will have faster download speeds and will have close to a 100% uptime, while the previous one was substantially lower.

SkyTeam Travel Timetable Introduced
With the addition of Korean Air Virtual, several other of our virtual airlines switched timetables to the recently released SkyTeam Travel Timetable, which includes the flights of six of our virtual airlines: Alitalia, Continental, Delta, KLM, Korean Air, and Northwest. Please switch to the new timetable as soon as possible; it can be downloaded here.

Virgin Express to Merge with SN Brussels Airlines
As announced here, Virgin Express will be merging with SN Brussels Airlines. Virgin Express' assets will be used much in the same way as they are today, low-fare service to destinations from Brussels. It's expected that the Virgin franchise will disappear, but Virgin Express will remain within the operations of Virgin International Airways.

Balair and Sobelair to be Added to Sabena and Swissair
The charter airlines related to Sabena and Swissair, Sobelair and Balair, will be added to their respective virtual airlines in the near future. Balair's operations will be from Zurich to Ciego de Avila, Colombo, Male, Mauritius, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, and Varadero, and Sobelair (as they were before Sabena's closing) from Brussels to Banjul, Catania, Dakar, Faro, Sal, and Tel Aviv. Both airlines operate new aircraft types for each virtual airline.

Update on Future Pan American Development
As announced last month, we will be adding Pan American World Airways' operations to our development as our sixth and final virtual airline of our 2005 expansion. We intend to use their summer 1970 timetable, which is shortly after 747 deliveries began, but including a large number of the type. This timeframe was selected because it allows the largest number and variety of worldwide routes and aircraft. The virtual airline will offer 707, 727, 747, and DC-8 flights.

Copa Announces Major Aircraft Order
Copa Airlines recently announced an order for 10 Embraer ERJ-190s with options for an additional 20 aircraft. It's expected that Copa will use these new aircraft to add additional flights to existing destinations and expand to new ones. The ten aircraft on firm order would expand Copa's fleet size by nearly 50%.

Continental Announces Major Transatlantic Expansion
Over the last month, Continental has announced an unprecedented five new transatlantic routes from Newark, to Belfast, Berlin, Bristol, Hamburg, and Stockholm. Continental has also applied for permission to fly from Newark to both Lagos and Moscow. It's also rumored that Continental will announce at least one more European destination.

Our 2004 expansion plan called for adding eight virtual airlines across the course of the entire year, a goal we can still achieve. I know many of you are just as excited about our final two, Air Canada and British Airways, as I am. With your continuing support and persistent effort, we can finish the year strong and add these two airlines to our organization for you to enjoy.

Aaron Robinson
aaron.robinson@simairline.net
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