Not entirely sure about the criticism. I’ve been using it for almost 6 months as my main excuse to fly in MSFS and the most frequent arguments against it are its subscription model (about 30 Euros per year) and also the very unhappy situation with the contractor Support team that was disbanded and was replaced by internal parties.
But OnAir keeps involving, it gets updates on a weekly basis, whenever a bug is found it’s reported via Discord and gets fixed within a day or two at most and it has a strong and interesting roadmap.
Also a big company to back it up and significant community numbers. It has its issues and hasn’t been around for as long as e.g. FSEconomy, but it’s constantly improving.
For those who haven’t tried it but would like to give it a chance, there’s a 7-days trial.
I liked OnAir 7-day trial for my GA flying. I don’t fly airliners or even regional jets, only props and turboprops. OnAir is decent for this purpose. The only thing I didn’t like is long-term commitment for the cheapest monthly rate. I would definitely get it for $2/month with cancel any time.
Very eager to try Neofly as well (as a matter of fact I may even do it today), but I’m not sure it’s in the same category as OnAir. I’d say they’re probably complementary of each other. OnAir can be compared with cargo/passenger addons such as Air Hauler, FSEconomy etc.
In any case I’ve yet to hear a serious argument against OnAir, except that it has a subscription model.
I don’t like the subscription model (but paid for 12 months after using the trial - a big mistake)
and you spend more time looking at a spreadsheet than actually flying…
That also depends on whether you want to manage an entire fleet having employees etc, or just go solo. In Thunder server where there are no AI pilots, you need to do everything on your own so it’s 95% flying and 5% management. This is what I’ve been doing since day 1. It’s a slow and tedious process to make money but still fun. I’ve transitioned from C172 to King Air 350, to CJ4 (there was some good money there) and then back to Piper Arrow after my CTD issues began. Others try to find shortcuts here and there, get bank loans etc and go to airliners as soon as possible (but it’ll still require quite some time to get there).
In other servers I assume it takes a lot of spreadsheet work to organize everything, but I imagine it must be a similar experience with all similar addons (e.g. FS Economy). Perhaps other career addons that don’t involve any fleet management beyond what you’re already flying may be more appropriate for you?
Tried it liked it allot but refuse to pay a subscription for software that should just have a Price, especially when that subscription literally makes the experience worse, everything feels incredibly clunky and slow because its all having to access servers that are not up to the task apparently.
I have tried them both and both work flawlessly with MSFS. But like other users have reported above, each has a plus and minus. The only thing I like better is the OnAir interface - it’s a lot cleaner and easier to use, in my opinion.
But, the biggest drawback for me is that in both cases, you spend more time trying to find the most efficient flights than you do flying.
I am interested in OnAir but have a question regarding “teaming up.” Is that possible in any way? I have heard there’s a way to “partner,” with other simmers. Does that mean if someone has a FBO you can run missions for them to contribute to their company? Curious how the MMO part works.
Exactly what you described. If you join OnAir’s Discord channel, you’ll find plenty of virtual airlines constantly looking for “employees” or others simply searching for partners. As long as you own a fleet of airplanes you can rent, hire, lease them to other people.
I would argue that on the most popular and also most hardcore server (Thunder) where no AI pilots are allowed, teaming up or working for others is probably the easiest way to make some (virtual) money early on. Otherwise you’ll end up like me who’s done tens of thousands of miles with Cessnas, Piper 28’s, B350’s and CJ4’s but still own only a used Arrow III and have less than 1.5m of cash
