🏦 Loan System Overhaul

We have completed a major overhaul of the company loan system. We discovered a bug in our interest calculations that made loans significantly more expensive than intended. This has been corrected. All loans now use a clearer Annual Percentage Rate (APR) model, and interest rates have been significantly reduced across the board.

We've also introduced new "Standard Growth Loan" tiers to help you expand your company at different stages of your career.

Most importantly, we have run a script to rebalance all existing loans. If you have an active loan, its interest rate has been lowered to match the new, cheaper APR rates, and your remaining payments have been recalculated. You don't need to do anything; your loan is now cheaper.

✏️ Company Name & ICAO Updates

You now have the ability to update your company's name and ICAO code. In your company preferences, you'll find the new fields after clicking on the Edit button next to your company details.

This allows you to rebrand your company or fix typos you made during setup.

✈️ Aircraft & Economy Updates

We've continued to refine the economy by slightly reducing the prices for many aircraft in the database. We also updated seating and payload statistics for several airframes to be more accurate.

Additionally, we've added a Request a new aircraft button directly to the aircraft database page, linking you to the official request form.

💺 Critical Charter Job Fix

We fixed a critical bug in the seat assignment logic for charter jobs. Previously, the system that checked passenger seating has a bug that allowed you to accept a job with an aircraft that was actually too small.

The logic now correctly handles upgrades for charter jobs where Business passengers fill empty First Class seats before Economy passengers do. This ensures that an aircraft is only marked as valid if it truly has enough seats for all passengers after all upgrades are processed.

🛫 Improved Slot Validation

We've improved slot validation for aircraft jobs. The Available Aircraft screen will no longer show an aircraft as valid if it doesn't have a required departure slot. The diagnostic view is also clearer, showing separate checks for departure and arrival slots.

Other improvements

• Fixed an issue on the V1 migration screen where the Next button could not be clicked.
• Fixed a bug that caused the browser tab to freeze or crash when editing number fields, such as the Simbrief passenger weight.
• The Finances tab within a partnership's detail page is now scrollable.
• Updated the Discord button and added new badges for supported platforms (MSFS, X-Plane, etc.) to the landing page.

We've made two major improvements to how passengers are boarded for your route flights, which will reduce frustrating "near-miss" failures and help you fly fuller aircraft.

First, we've relaxed the strict validation for route minimums. Previously, if your route required 28 passengers and the system could only fit 27, the job would fail. Now, the job will be accepted as long as you have at least one passenger assigned to each required cabin. Flying with 27 out of 28 seats filled is far better than not flying at all.

Second, to help you hit those minimums more often, we've improved the "bin-packing" algorithm that fills your seats. The new system is much smarter at optimizing passenger groups, prioritizing larger groups first to fill the aircraft more efficiently. This means you'll see fewer cases where seats are left empty even when plenty of demand is available.

Finally, if a flight does fail because zero passengers could be assigned, you'll get a clearer error message. For example, it will now tell you if this happened because all available passenger groups were too large for your aircraft's capacity (e.g., trying to fit a group of 5 into a 1-seat aircraft).

Other improvements

• Fixed an issue where route demand would not update correctly unless you had a suitable aircraft already parked at the departure airport.

A More Balanced Demand Market

We've updated the background tool that manages the global demand market. This tool already kept the total number of available demand in check, but it now also enforces a new, balanced ratio between economy, business, and first-class demand.

This change prevents any single passenger class from oversaturating the market. You should now find a more consistent and varied mix of opportunities across all classes.

You may find that demand numbers dip slightly as the tool rebuilds demand to the correct proportions.

A Clearer Live Flight Map

We've improved the Live Flight Map to give you a truer sense of air traffic, especially in busy airspace.

Previously, if an aircraft's label couldn't be shown without clashing with another, its aircraft icon would also be hidden. This meant aircraft would seem to 'pop in' as you zoomed.

Now, aircraft icons will always be displayed, even if they overlap. The map will still intelligently hide labels to prevent them from clashing and keep the view readable, but you will now see all aircraft icons in the area, giving you a much more accurate picture of live operations.

Other improvements

• Fixed a critical bug that could cause actions (like signing an agreement) to fail part-way through. This ensures that actions now either complete fully or fail safely, preventing issues like agreements being created without a corresponding payment.
• Corrected the internal mapping for several V1 aircraft purchase prices, fixing a bug where some aircraft could not be sold.
• Fixed a UI glitch issue on the subscription pricing page.
• Updated an error message for clarity when attempting to view finances without permission.

You can now create a shared economy with your partners using the new Revenue Sharing system. This optional feature lets you automatically pool income from member flights and distribute profits on a monthly basis.

As a partnership manager, you'll find a new Finances tab in your partnership panel. From here, you can enable revenue sharing, which instantly creates a shared bank account for your partnership.

When you first enable revenue sharing, all existing members are set to 100% contribution and an equal share. You can then customize this using the new Update All Revenue Sharing Percentages tool on the Members tab. This allows you to set two key values for every member in the partnership:

• Revenue Contribution %: The percentage of a member's flight revenue that is automatically paid into the partnership pot.
• Share Percentage %: The percentage of the pot that member receives during the monthly payout. The total share must equal 100%.

When a member completes a flight, their contribution is transferred to the partnership account. On the 1st of every month, the entire balance of the partnership account is distributed to all members based on their configured share.

You can track all of this activity in the Finances tab, which shows the partnership's current balance and a full log of all contributions and payouts. The Members tab also provides a clear overview of each member's percentages and their most recent payout.

When a new company joins an already-active partnership, they will be added with 0% contribution and 0% share. You can then use the "Update All" tool to rebalance the partnership's new economy and include them in the payouts

You can read more about Partnership Revenue Sharing in our documentation.

Other improvements

• Updated the default avatar used for Discord notifications.

Small Improvements

• Fixed an issue where Passenger Services set to 'create-job' could fail or create invalid jobs when handling large passenger groups. The system now correctly splits passenger loads into multiple jobs respecting the 20-passenger charter limit and prevents a job from being created for any single group that exceeds this limit.
• Fixed a critical issue where an aircraft could become stuck at its destination if you lost access to the arrival slot mid-flight (e.g., if a partnership was dissolved). Your aircraft will now be safely auto-stored or placed on the tarmac, allowing the job to complete.
• Improved the reliability of partnership dissolutions to ensure all airport assets are handled correctly.

We've fixed a significant issue where companies locked for a negative bank balance would remain locked, even after receiving a manual transfer or other payment that brought their balance back to $0 or positive.

Now, as soon as your company's balance becomes non-negative, it will be automatically unlocked, allowing you to resume normal operations immediately. We've also run a data fix to unlock any companies that were previously stuck in this state.

To make your company's status clearer, we've also added new visual indicators:

• You'll now see a "Locked" badge on your Finance page that explains why your company is locked.
• A lock icon will also appear next to any locked company's name in the main sidebar, so you can see its status at a glance.

We've heard your feedback that charter jobs, especially short hops in the early game, often don't feel worth the time and effort.

As a first step towards making General Aviation (GA) more sustainable, we're introducing a new demand premium. You will now receive an additional payment on top of the base fare for both charter and route jobs. This bonus increases your revenue without changing the passenger's underlying travel budget.

This pay boost is most significant for charter jobs, which now include a substantial flat-rate premium, while passengers flying routes receive a smaller (but still significant) subsidy towards their ticket price, resulting in marginally higher demand for routes.

This is just the beginning of our work to re-balance the charter economy. We are actively developing further improvements, including more significant pay boosts and revenue-sharing features for partnerships, which will be released in future updates.

Charter Job Payments

For Charter jobs, you'll receive a £150 premium per passenger. This payment is applied once per passenger group for each job, specifically on the first leg that you fly for them.

If a passenger group's journey is split into multiple legs within the same job, only that first leg receives this extra payment. This makes completing the first step of a charter even more valuable.

Route Job Payments

Route jobs work differently, providing a subsidy that helps both you and the passengers. You will receive an extra £50 per passenger for every route leg they fly with your company.

This payment also acts as a subsidy for passengers, making your routes more attractive. When passengers are deciding if they can afford your route, this £50 is temporarily added to their budget for the affordability check. This means they can afford more expensive or longer routes than before, increasing your potential customer base.

In both Charter and Route cases, this subsidy doesn't come out of the passenger's actual travel budget, so they still have their full funds available for future trips. It's a simple revenue boost for you and an affordability boost for them.

Small Improvements

• Added a manual refresh button for routes that are disabled due to Insufficient Slots. If you believe a route should be active but it appears disabled, you can now press this button to force a re-check. This is a temporary workaround until the root cause is fixed.

Small Improvements

• Fixed a bug in aircraft valuation that could cause unfair price swings. An aircraft's resale value is now correctly based on its original purchase price and condition, rather than the current market price for a new model of that type. This makes valuations more stable and predictable.
• Re-enabled the "Sell to Broker" option, which was temporarily disabled. You can once again sell your aircraft directly to the broker for an instant payment.

We've overhauled the loan borrowing screen to give you complete visibility into all available loan products and why you may or may not be eligible for them.

Previously, loan products you weren't eligible for were simply hidden, often leaving you to guess why. Now, you will see all available loan products listed in the Finance > Available Loans tab.

Products you don't qualify for are clearly marked as "Unavailable" and greyed out. More importantly, we now tell you exactly why you are ineligible directly on the row. This makes it clear what requirements you're missing, whether it's related to your company's net worth, your AOC level, or anything else.

We've also improved the logic for taking out multiple loans. You are now only prevented from taking out a loan if you currently have an active one of the same type.

This means that as soon as you fully repay a loan, you are immediately eligible to take out another one from the same product (provided you still meet all other criteria). You are no longer permanently blocked after using a loan product once.

When you schedule a route, the system is now much more efficient when assigning slots. Aircraft will now prioritise the most appropriate slot for their size, saving your larger capacity for the aircraft that truly need it.

Previously, a small aircraft (like a B190) might have occupied a large slot if it was the first one the system found, unnecessarily blocking it from use by a larger aircraft. Now, the system will always assign the smallest available slot that your aircraft fits into, keeping your high-capacity slots free.

Furthermore, the system will now prioritize using slots that you own before using slots from your partnership.

A More Realistic Net Worth

Your company's net worth calculation has been updated to provide a more accurate picture of your financial health.

Previously, net worth was calculated as your total assets plus your cash balance. It now also subtracts your total outstanding loan balances. This change means your net worth directly reflects your company's equity, giving you a truer measure of your value and influencing your eligibility for new financing.

Bank Loan Overhaul

The bank's entire portfolio of loan products has been overhauled to provide more strategic financing options.

The original 'Kickstart Fund' and 'Expansion Fund' have been re-balanced with new, lower interest rates, updated terms, and clearer eligibility requirements. We have also added several new loan products tied to your company's net worth, allowing for more specialized financing as your company grows.

This update gives you more flexible tools to manage your cash flow, whether you're just starting out or planning a major expansion.