Yes it does look this way. I have been stuck on the same screen since I posted the original comment. I am gutted as I really enjoy the simulator but now cannot play it. I will try and launch the game offline to see if that has an impact.
This also did not work. It’s frustrating because I have no idea how to get this work. 
Hello, have you tried deleting all your scenery indexes and let the sim build new ones?
If not, try that, it normally works for me when I have had this issue in the past. It is almost certainly symptomatic of an add-on being to blame, it always has been my problem when this rears it’s ugly head and won’t progress to the main menu.
Edit: incidentally, what add-ons are you using?
Hello. Thanks for the reply. I gave this a go and still no dice. Going to try another fresh install tomorrow and add the addons back one by one. Pretty disappointing the game as no work around for this or and indication of what it is failing to load.
Oh shame, well good luck, I hope you can solve it.
So a little more investigation and the add ons that are causing it could be one of the carenado aircraft, the SF50 Vision or the flying iron spitfire or F35.
I just reinstalled the flight simulator from clean with only these add ons and the world updates and it has the same bug again where I cannot reach the menu and I am stuck with the blue loading bar.
Please fix this bug!! It has made a game I really enjoyed unplayable. 
When your sim reaches 100% on the load screen, disable and then enable your network card. You will pass to the main menu.
Now i have this problem, ne er occured before!