VaerolyHelp centre · For airline staff
Setting up your airline (hubs, fleet, routes, ranks)
Watch the video: Open your airline
How to get a new airline ready for pilots: hubs, fleet, routes and ranks. Do the steps in any order and come back any time.
Use the Getting started page
Open Staff → Setup (the page is called Getting started; the menu shows how many required steps are done, for example Setup (2 of 6), and once they're all done the page moves to Staff → Airline settings → Getting started). It lists each step, ticks the ones that are done, and lets you do the quick ones right there. Each step has an Open the full page link.
Start from a template. While your airline has no routes, Getting started may also offer Start from a template: the setup another airline on Vaeroly shares (hubs, fleet, routes and ranks, never pilots), checked by a Vaeroly administrator. Use this template copies it into your airline, with your ICAO code on the flight numbers; then change anything you like. To share your own setup, the owner opens Staff → Airline settings → Import & export → Offer your setup as a starter template.
Moving from another crew centre? The Move your airline here card leads to a guided page for bringing your fleet, routes, pilots and flight history over and inviting your pilots: see Moving your airline from another platform.
Quick start
A brand-new airline (no aircraft, routes or ranks yet) gets a Quick start card at the top of Getting started. Open it, type your hub and up to 3 aircraft types, then press Show what we'd add. You see, before anything is saved:
- the hub,
- 2 aircraft of each type (choose 1 to 5), with registrations in a series that starts from your hub country's prefix and your ICAO code, for example HZ-WZA, HZ-WZB,
- the standard rank ladder, with the types each rank flies,
- up to 40 routes from real-world flights at your hub over the last 2 days, with their usual times and block times. By default these are the flights of the real airline with your ICAO code.
Under More choices you can set the first registration, or copy the flights of another real airline (its 3-letter ICAO code). Press Create all to add everything at once. Then change anything you like on the Hubs, Fleet, Routes and Ranks pages. Once the airline has a fleet, routes or ranks, the card goes away, so it never mixes into your own setup.
If real-world flights aren't set up on the site, or none were found, the quick start adds the rest and you add routes later.
Starting styles
A starting style is a ready-made set of feature switches and airline rules. Pick one when you create the airline, or later on Staff → Airline settings → Optional features under Starting styles:
- Standard (no style): most optional features on, with aircraft flying on from where they landed, one pilot per aircraft and maintenance checks. Turn off on Optional features what your airline doesn't need. A feature that works with a setting, such as the finances or charter flights, links it on its card and says whether it's on.
- Relaxed: fly what you like, from anywhere: pilots join straight away, no activity rules, and nothing rejects a flight by itself.
- Realistic: real-world operations: pilots and aircraft fly on from where they landed, one pilot per aircraft, maintenance checks, and the aircraft check in ACARS.
- Career: climb the ladder: written exams and checkrides, rosters to bid on, airline finances, and pilots who stop flying for 60 days are marked inactive.
See what changes lists exactly which switches go on or off and which settings change, from what to what. Nothing changes until you press Apply. It's recorded in the activity log, and you can still change every switch and setting afterwards. A style that changes settings needs the Airline settings permission too. Styles are never applied by themselves.
Feature packs
Under Starting styles on Optional features, Feature packs turn on switches that belong together in one go: Community and fun, Training school and Airline operations. A pack only turns switches on. It never turns anything off or changes a setting, so it adds to your style. See what changes lists each switch it turns on and where it shows, then Apply turns them on. It's recorded in the activity log.
Hubs and airports
Go to Staff → Operations → Hubs & airports.
- Under Add a hub, type an airport's ICAO code, name or city. About 19,000 airports worldwide are already known.
- Click Add hub.
New pilots choose one of your hubs as their home base. Remove hub stops it being a hub; pilots based there keep it until they change it. Your only hub can't be removed: add the new hub first. Without a hub, pilots can't join and your airline leaves the directory, and the staff overview warns you.
If an airport is missing (a new or private field), add it with Add an airport on the same page, with its ICAO code, name and coordinates.
Fleet
Go to Staff → Operations → Fleet.
- Press Add aircraft. Under Registration(s) enter one registration, or paste several (separated by commas or new lines), or enter the first of a series and How many (SU-FCA and 3 gives SU-FCA, SU-FCB and SU-FCC).
- Enter the Type: type its ICAO code or name and pick it from the list. Every real-world type is there, including every aircraft SimBrief has. Optionally enter the airport it's Parked at.
- Click Add aircraft. A type no airline has used yet is added for you. Registrations already in your fleet are skipped and listed.
The list shows how many aircraft are available, booked, in maintenance or grounded (click one to see only those), and can be searched by registration, type or livery, filtered by airport, and grouped by type. Tick aircraft to move them to an airport, ground them, return them to service or hide them from booking all at once.
A type that isn't in the list can be added on the Types & SimBrief airframes tab with its ICAO code and name. Aircraft types are shared by every airline on Vaeroly: a name you type there is your airline's own name for the type, and other airlines keep seeing the standard name. A code that isn't a known ICAO type needs a name. If your airline has ranks, a new type that no rank lists gets a warning, because everyone can fly it.
Under SimBrief airframes, each type can use one of SimBrief's variants of it (for example its freighter; pick it from the list) or the ID of an airframe you saved in SimBrief (e.g. 123456_1612345678). Empty means the plain type.
Each aircraft has an Edit form (livery, location, Pilots can book it and more). Ground takes it out of service and Return to service brings it back. An aircraft that has flown can't be deleted, so ground it instead. The owner can also delete the whole fleet at once: see Deleting the whole fleet.
The Types & SimBrief airframes tab sets the airframe pilots plan each type with, and the Simulator titles tab tells Vaeroly which type a simulator title (a livery or add-on name) belongs to.
Routes
Go to Staff → Operations → Routes and press Add route. Enter the Flight number, both airports and at least one aircraft type (your fleet's types come first; Show all types lists the rest), then click Add route. Distance and block time are worked out for you and shown as soon as both airports are filled in; you can override the block time. Tick Also add the return flight to add the way back at the same time: it gets the next flight number (EGY101 → EGY102) unless you enter one.
Optional fields (under More):
- Departs (UTC), used for on-time stats.
- Type: Scheduled, Cargo, Charter or Training.
- Tags, so pilots can filter flights.
- First day and Last day, for seasonal flights.
- Operator (ICAO) and Callsign, for flights of another real airline or a different ATC callsign.
The list shows 50 routes a page. Search by flight number or airport, filter by type, tag, aircraft or status (Needs attention lists routes pilots can't book as they are, with the reason), and click a column heading to sort. Edit opens the route on its own page.
Suspend hides a route from booking and Activate brings it back. A route that has been booked can't be deleted, so suspend it instead. Tick several routes to suspend or activate them, add or set their aircraft types, add or remove a tag, or delete the ones never booked, all at once.
There are two faster ways to add routes:
- Import real flights finds what a real airline flew from up to 6 airports (OpenSky Network, when your server is connected to it). Tick the ones you want and click Add the ticked routes.
- Staff → Airline settings → Import & export takes a CSV or Excel file, or the export files of your current crew centre. See Moving your airline from another platform to bring an existing airline over.
Ranks
Go to Staff → Operations → Ranks, or click Use the standard ladder on Getting started. The standard ladder adds six ranks, from Cadet (0 h) to Senior Captain (600 h). New pilots fly the smaller aircraft of your fleet, and captains fly everything.
To make your own, use Add a rank. A rank can require hours, points, flights and days in service. Pilots are promoted automatically when they meet every requirement. When you change a rank, pilots move up or down to match straight away.
Each rank unlocks aircraft types and keeps everything from the ranks below. Every pilot can fly a type that no rank lists, and the page lists those types at the top. It also warns you if new pilots can't fly anything.
The Unlocks column shows what each rank adds. The standard ladder puts each type on the first rank it fits, once. If you put a type on more than one rank, the page says so: click Keep each type on its lowest rank to tidy it. Nobody gains or loses an aircraft.
News posts meant for one rank and above move to the next rank up when you delete that rank. If there's no higher rank, the rank can't be deleted until you change who those posts are for.
Tick Honorary for a rank that staff give by hand, like a team rank. It has no requirements and isn't part of promotion.
See Ranks and points for how pilots see this.
Finding a setting
Staff → Airline settings → Settings has its settings on tabs (Basics, Pilots, Flights & scoring, Community, Integrations). Type a word in Find a setting above the tabs, such as jumpseat or VATSIM, and pick a line: the right tab opens and the setting is marked. Ctrl+K (⌘K on a Mac) finds settings by name too.
If you change something and try to leave the tab without pressing Save settings, the page asks first. Recent changes, under each tab, lists the last saves: when, who, and which settings changed (for example Longest leave (days): 60 → 90). The full history is in the Activity log.
Be found by new pilots
New airlines start listed in the directory. To change it, go to Staff → Airline settings → Settings, on the Community tab: tick List us in the public airline directory and press Save. Your airline then appears on the public Airlines page (linked at the bottom of every page), with its name, hubs, number of aircraft and pilots, and a link to join. Nothing about individual pilots is shown. Untick it to leave the directory.
Hiring. In the Hiring card next to it, tick We're recruiting and write who you're looking for (up to 300 characters). Your card in the directory then shows Hiring and your note, and pilots can filter the directory for airlines that are hiring. Tick the tags that describe you (simulators, networks, region, style) so pilots who filter on them find you. While applications are closed (the Pilots tab) or you have no hub, you aren't shown as hiring, and the card says why.
Your own email wording
If your airline has turned on Your own email wording, Staff → Airline settings → Emails lists the emails your airline sends pilots: application and PIREP decisions, questions, comments, transfers, rank requests, checkrides, claims, leave and inactivity. Open one, write your own Subject and Text, and press Save; the preview shows it with sample values. You can use {name} (the pilot), {airline}, {message} (the standard text, in the pilot's language) and {link}. Leave a field empty to keep the standard one, or press Back to the standard email. Your text goes out as you wrote it, whatever the pilot's language, so keep {message} if your pilots read different languages.
Type ratings that lapse
On Staff → Training → Type ratings you pick the types that need a rating and what a checkride must show. Fill in A rating lapses after this many days without a flight on its type to make ratings lapse; leave it empty (the default) and they never do. A rating counts from its latest accepted flight on the type (a co-pilot's flight counts too), or from when it was granted or renewed if that's later. Nothing is deleted: a lapsed rating stays on the pilot's record, and booking that type is blocked as if they had no rating, until they pass a checkride on it again.
Staff see Lapsed on a date in the list of rated pilots and on the pilot's own page, with a Renew button. Renewing counts as current from today and is written to the activity log.
Documents pilots must read
On Staff → Community → Documents, tick Pilots must read this on a document (not a staff-only one). Every pilot who can open it then sees it on their dashboard under Documents to read until they press I have read it; who confirmed and when is kept. Each document shows how many pilots have confirmed, and lists those who haven't yet.
When you change a required document, tick I changed what it says: ask every pilot to read it again to ask for a new confirmation. Leave it unticked for a small fix, and the confirmations already given still count.
To stop pilots booking until they've confirmed every required document, turn on Required reading before booking in Optional features. The booking page then lists what they still have to read.
File hangar
With File hangar on, you can keep a document for pilots from a rank up. On Staff → Community → Documents, pick Who can open it: Every pilot, or From a rank. Pilots below that rank still see the document under Airline → Documents, locked, with the rank they need. Staff can always open it.
Documents are links: Vaeroly doesn't store files. Files your airline uploaded before stay downloadable for your pilots until you delete them.
Staff switch it on under Staff → Airline settings → Optional features, in the Airline running group.
Analytics
If your airline has turned on Airline analytics, Staff → Reports → Analytics shows flights and pilots flying week by week, how many new pilots are still flying after 30 and 90 days, flights by hub, aircraft type and route, the routes nobody has flown for 90 days, average points and landing rate each week, and how long PIREPs wait for review (the median, and the 90th percentile: nine in ten are reviewed within that time).
Choose the period. The page shows the last 12 weeks at first. Under Period pick 4 weeks, 12 weeks, 6 months or 12 months, or enter your own From and To dates and press Show this period (two years at most; weeks start on Monday, UTC). The weekly figures, the flights by hub, type and route, the reviewers and the join funnel follow the period. Retention, the review wait and the routes nobody has flown keep their own windows (30 and 90 days).
Download weekly figures (CSV) saves the week-by-week table of the period you are looking at: the week's start date, flights, pilots, average points and average landing rate. It opens in any spreadsheet.
From application to first flight follows the people who applied in the period (by the date they first applied): how many applications came in, how many were accepted (members now, or members who have since left), how many filed a first PIREP, and how many had a PIREP accepted or completed. Their flights count up to today, so a recent period's numbers still grow.
PIREP reviewers shows each staff member's review work in the period: the decisions they made (accepted, and rejected or invalidated), the median time from filing to their decision, and the PIREPs waiting for a pilot's reply to their question. Above it is how many PIREPs wait in the review queue now. A decision changed later counts for whoever changed it.
Compared with similar airlines puts three of your numbers next to the median of airlines of a similar size on Vaeroly: new pilots still flying after 30 days, flights per active pilot in 30 days, and the median review wait. It's anonymous: only the middle value of at least 5 airlines is shown, never another airline's own numbers, and nobody else sees yours.
A weekly email. Every Monday the owner gets these numbers by email: pilots flying, flights this week and the week before, new pilots still flying, PIREPs waiting for review and your league place. It is on for new airlines. Untick Email the owner a weekly summary on the Basics tab of Staff → Airline settings → Settings (Getting started shows it too), or use the unsubscribe link in the email, to stop it.
Codeshares with other airlines
With Codeshares turned on (Staff → Airline settings → Optional features), share routes with another airline on Vaeroly:
- On Staff → Operations → Routes, on the Codeshares tab, type the other airline's ICAO code or web address. To share only some of your routes, give them a tag (for example
codeshare) and type it; leave it empty to share every route. - The other airline's staff accept it on their Routes page, choosing which of their routes they share. They need the switch on too.
- Your pilots now see the partner's shared flights on the schedule, marked Codeshare, and book them with your aircraft. The flight counts at your airline: hours, points and finances. Their pilots can book yours the same way.
Either airline can change what it shares or end the codeshare at any time; bookings already made stay.
Route wishes from pilots
Switch on Route wishes in Optional features to let pilots suggest routes and vote for them. Staff with the Routes and schedules permission find them under Operations → Route wishes, most votes first.
- Add this route opens the Add route form with the airports (and the aircraft type, if the pilot picked one) filled in. Add a flight number and save. Once a route between those airports is on the schedule, however you added it, the wish is marked added.
- Decline asks for a reason, which pilots see.
Either way, the pilot who wished and everyone who voted get a notification.
Limits that keep Vaeroly fast for everyone
Many airlines share Vaeroly, so a few limits stop one airline from slowing down the others. Normal use never gets near them.
- Changes: one person can save about 2 changes a second (up to 60 in a quick burst). All of your airline's people together can save about 10 a second (up to 300 in a burst). Past that, the page asks you to wait a minute and try again.
- Emails: your airline's own emails (decisions, replies, invitations) and its news and summaries each have a share of Vaeroly's hourly email limit. Emails over the share wait in the queue and go out the next hour. Nothing is lost.