Hi, IFC! Im back with another question for us to discuss:
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel like the US users (granted that I am one) only prefer to fly in the US and occasionally in Europe’s “popular” destinations (EGLL, LFPG, EDDF)? I’m just observing based on traffic volumes in Asia, Africa, etc.
For example, the KATL Atlanta Mega-HUB FNF we had a couple weeks prior saw nearly 300-350 inbound traffic at one time in the peak hours. However, VTBS Bangkok’s FNF this week saw merely 200 at the peak. LiveFlight also corroborated this: today’s ATC schedule takes us to the Balkans, and I can see that the traffic is much less compared to EGLL, KJFK, KLAX, or KSFO when they are opened.
I don’t know, I just want to hear some of the opinions on this observation in the IFC. I am not trying to call any one or group out, I’m just trying to suggest that we should diversify our destinations a little bit more (Not trying to call out IFATC, who take tremendous efforts to diversify this already!). I’m calling on pilots, especially those based in the US, to try and fly to unknown or unexplored destinations/regions!
Well I hear your point. Sometimes it’s good to fly in home turf. But for me I think it’s getting a little repetitive to fly in the same area. Also in Europe, I’m flying to newer cities and lesser known airports (kinda like secondary airports). It’s a nice breath of fresh air. Great reminder to all though! People need to realize that there are far more beautiful places in the world
Well yeah people can choose where the want to fly, I live in the United States so I am way more likely to fly if US Citues are featured, compared to some random airports in Asia that I’ve never heard of. It’s not that I don’t like those places, I just don’t really care about flying in places that are boring and I’ve never heard of
I understand what you’re saying but those airports you’re talking about (EGLL, KLAX, KSFO, KJFK) are all hubs for many many different airlines so users have a lot more variety in what aircraft and liveries they can fly (if they wanna be realistic). Also VA’s have specific routes for their pilots to fly that replicate the real world routes and a lot of these go in to and out of these hubs, encouraging a lot more people to fly and gain hours for their VA. But I still do agree with you to an extent, it still would be nice to see people explore the world a little more rather than just flying into the same hubs.
Yeah a lot of times especially in training server everyone literally goes to EGLL and even though I don’t fly on training server that much I’m still like, “WHY DO YOU NEED TO GO HERE”, my thoughts are that when beginners see that a lot of people are at one airport they want to immediately go straight to there, therefore since there’s always a lot of people at EGLL they are always going to go to EGLL.
This is actually my exact point! I feel like there is this “stigma” around unknown airports, especially in Africa/Asia, where users deem them “unfit” to fly into simply because they have “never heard of them”.
I am not trying to forbid anyone from flying to the HUBS mentioned above that are already so popular, I’m simply saying we should shift our perspectives and open up a little.
It’s mainly just being “biased” to one specific place. Exactly because everyone flies in America, I very rarely do a flight there unless there is an event/FNF. My Balkan event doesn’t have a lot of people compared to other days because I think that its generally an underused area, and some people don’t want or are scared to discover new places. Just recently, I’ve had so many people tell me that they thank me for the event, as I had uncovered them some new airports to fly at.
You can’t assume that just because you’ve never flown there that they are “boring.”
And personały, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see so many people at my home airport, Belgrade. It puts a huge smile to my face to see such action in the balkans, which are such an underused region in IF. I can say that I’m biased for flying so much here, but for a different reason. I want to promote the region for more action there.
I understand your point, and totally respect it. From personal experience, I would much rather fly into KORD, my home airport, than anywhere else.
But at the same time, this type of attitude in my opinion is very dismissive of other airports who might be at the same level or even better than some US airports!
I understand your point, but from my observations, lots of users still fly to smaller airports and not the mega-hubs, though that is the minority. Now I for one utilize lots of small airports, wether they be in the US or not. But I still do like flying to mega-hubs. And being from the US, I’m more likely to fly to the US anyway. Sometimes, I think we should have a variety, and not just mega-hubs, wether they’re in the US or not, but the mega-hubs are the airports that have hundreds of route options, which is why people fly to/from them more. That’s because some people don’t seem to get how beautiful small airports can be, or large airports in new areas. I, for one, in my little over a year of having live, have not only flown in my home country (though I’m more likely to fly there), I’ve discovered so many airports in other areas and countries, something everyone in IF should do at one point.
I don’t get what you mean by “very dismissive” like I said I like trying different airports, yesterday I flew into Asheville, North Carolina which you may not have even heard of, and I’m planning on flying Basel to Belgrade soon, I’ve never been to any places near those areas
My guess is that due to our US-centric education system here, most Americans don’t actually know a lot of other cities in the world. If they do know other cities, they’ll only be huge cities in Europe like London, Paris, Rome, etc. Therefore, they have little to no interest flying in those places.
If you’ve ever seen those “Americans try Geography” videos, you’ll see what I mean. Even when I was in high school, most people had no idea where Patagonia was. It’s sad but it’s true.
I just think that regardless of the familiarity of the region or not, we should try to make an effort to fly there. Exactly how you are doing today, flying into Belgrade!
Unlike you, I feel there are users who look at a region and if it’s an unknown area, they don’t participate at all. They would rather do a standard KJFK-KLAX route in an American A321. (Not that this route isn’t perfect, the scenery is extraordinary!)
Pretty painful to watch those videos, am I right?
But I agree with you. That, and some other factors, are likely reasons why people don’t fly to other regions or countries. And lots of IF users are in the US (I don’t know the exact statistics, but it’s a lot), which explains the flying to common places, like EGLL, KLAX, KJFK, etc.
I rarely ever fly to and from places like that. There’s so much better things to explore than EGLL and KLAX. Sometimes it’s better to control other places.
I think that the United States and North America does 38.1 percent of all air travel commercially, that’s not including military. And Africa accounts for less than 1 percent. I think if you flew a different airport everyday for the next few years you still would not hit all the airports in the United States. I also do not know what percentage of this population on the game is American vs from another country, as I think the community is a little more diverse than the actually people playing.
I also wish that IFATC would do more US airports, because I feel left out only getting them once a weeks.
And honestly, I don’t care where I fly, but I am absolutely biased towards places I know, and places I WANT to go.
All due respect to @Northwest, you may be correct in that most Americans cannot identify world cities, does that matter?? America is huge, there is a vast amount who have never seen the ocean, and a vast amount who have never seen the country. I feel as though you are putting all Americans down in a fashion as to say they are willfully and purposefully ignorant. I do not mean to offend, just feel it necessary to respond.
I think this is true. The Southern Hemisphere is almost always empty, except for the few residents flying locally unless they’re sucked into the snaking queues into the airports of Europe and the US! Spectacular flights are available in all continents nonetheless, but we need variety in our lives and same goes for the aviation industry. I absolutely loved the South Africa feature in the ATC schedule - it was so busy unlike usual on the IF servers.
A related topic blew up a fair bit recently:
Please, come and explore! Some places might not have huge mountains or massive populations and airports, but that’s what makes them special. You might see some beautiful deserts and shorelines.