Virtual Airlines are one of the best ways to get involved in the flight simulation community. Pilots can come together and simulate the operations of an airline, holding events, hosting giveaways and more!

VATSIM’s Virtual Airline Division provides network support for virtual airlines who make use of the network for their day to day operations. These VATSIM partner airlines receive a wide variety of benefits that ultimately provide quality-of-life features to member pilots. There are already over 140 partner virtual airlines, with a long list of airlines in the application pool.

VATSIM partner airlines are able to advertise their events through VATSIM sponsored channels as well as co-hosting events with a specific VATSIM ATC region. These events help increase airline visibility on the network while also providing plenty of traffic for ATC to manage.

If you use FSLTL for your model matching on VATSIM, you may have noticed some virtual airline liveries appear in the package. This is another benefit of VATSIM partnership. Airline administration is able to submit their livery to the FSLTL developers for inclusion in the popular model matching service!

For those who are always looking to learn more about aviation, partner airlines are able to work toward Authorized Training Organization status, where airlines can provide VATSIM pilot ratings to their membership!

One final benefit that is set to premiere in the coming weeks is full integration into the VATSIM live map. Soon, pilots flying under a partner airline callsign will list that partner on the map result. So next time you’re curious what that virtual airline uses that unique ICAO code, a quick click over to the VATSIM map will tell you everything you need to know!

Current initiatives of the virtual airline division include bringing on additional staff members to the team, developing a new airline partner website and revamping their “associate” program – which allows up and coming virtual airlines to start receiving the benefits of VATSIM partnership.

If you would like to learn more about VATSIM’s virtual airline division, they run the fourth largest VATSIM Discord server available to join from community.vatsim.net. You can also find the current list of VATSIM partner airlines here: https://my.vatsim.net/virtual-airlines