1 May 2005
To All Of Our Pilots,

April was another excellent month for us, as we celebrated five years of operations. Icelandair Virtual, our twenty-first virtual airline, opened and had a strong month. Unfortunately, we fell short in our monthly goals and therefore won't add AOM Virtual this month. There are several changes to our operations of late that are explained below, so please take the time to read them here.

Virgin Nigeria to Open Soon
Virgin Nigeria has announced that it expects to begin operations later this month. All Virgin Nigeria operations will be available through Virgin International Airways when the airline opens.

SriLankan to be Added to Emirates Virtual
The operations of SriLankan Airlines will eventually be available through Emirates Virtual. Emirates currently holds a 40% ownership stake and management control of SriLankan.

Virgin Express Ownership Change Completed
Virgin Express is now fully owned by SN Brussels Airlines, as per the agreement reached last October. It is expected that the Virgin Express brand name will eventually disappear. Virgin International Airways will continue to offer Virgin Express service regardless.

Regional Air Removed from Virtual British Airways
Due to British Airways' announcement that it had terminated its franchise agreement with Regional Air of Kenya, the latter's operations will be removed from Virtual British Airways.

El Al Codeshare Change
Our codeshare parternship has changed to El Al Israel Virtual Airlines, the successor to our original El Al codeshare partner. No outward changes will be visible except the return of El Al codeshare flights to Sabena.

Printed Timetables Request
Do you have any old timetables of our current virtual airlines? If so, I'd like to know if you're willing to lend them to me so I can add discontinued routes from them to our virtual airlines. Please contact me if you're able to help.

Summer will be an exciting time for us, as many of our virtual airlines will be expanding their networks and adding new aircraft types. We will be equally busy, with plans for our participation the upcoming IFC Blackpool Convention underway, our new roster system in development, the continuation of our training program, and the return of last year's popular Round-the-World Flight.

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