Fly the Line is a new career-focused add-on created to bring much-needed structure and purpose to the flight simulator experience. It’s aimed at those who need a reason to fly without having to sit and choose a route. You’ll visit airports and fly routes you wouldn’t have considered before.
You’ll step into the life of a short-haul airline pilot—juggling multi-sector schedules, personal responsibilities, and working your way up the ranks. Whether you’re flying for a fictional airline or recreating operations from your favourite real-world airlines, it’s designed to immerse you in the day-to-day challenges of airline life.
There’s lots to cover, but for now, let’s give you a quick overview of the main features. We’ll dive into the finer details in future updates.
Airlines and Aircraft
One of the features is the ability to create up to eight short-haul aircraft and eight airlines. This means you can build your own fleet and fly for an airline that suits your style, using your favourite airliners. You may want an airline that operates short domestic flights in an RJ100 or perhaps fly for a budget airline across Europe in an A320. Or a mix of the two. It’s up to you.
You can operate flights from 30 minutes all the way up to six hours. One of the main objectives was to allow you to step straight into your favourite add-ons and fly them right away. You have the freedom to fly whichever airliner you like for whichever airline you want.
It’s worth pointing out that Fly the Line isn’t an airline management sim. There is an element of management, but you’ll be managing yourself as opposed to the airlines you fly for.
Schedules
After you’ve created a profile, you’ll create your airline and set up your routes. The schedule generator is designed to be quick and easy to use, so in just a few clicks, you can generate hundreds of routes based on your chosen base airport.
Whilst on the subject of schedules… They’re built around multi-sector rosters spanning a five-day period. You’ll fly for five days and then have four days off. Some days might have just two sectors, while others could have four. You can customise this when setting up your airline so it fits your preferred flying style.
Game Modes
There are two game modes to cater to different tastes. These can be applied to any of your airlines:
• Career Mode: Work your way up to Fleet Captain, balancing your flying with personal life goals.
• Free Play: Everything’s unlocked, so you can jump straight into the skies without worrying about the day-to-day management side of things.
Progression was also a big focus. As you fly, you’ll earn XP and Skill Points that lets you level up and unlock over 30 skills. These unlock new features, provide stat boosts, and more, so you’re always building towards something.
Whilst most of your flights will go without a hitch, you may need to divert at some point. Diversions and unexpected challenges are also part of the experience. You might need to deal with a sick passenger or a tricky weather situation, forcing you to make tough decisions. It’s these little moments that keep things interesting and (hopefully) fun. You can control the frequency of these events as well, so if it’s not your thing, just turn it off.
As you continue to progress, you’ll gain access to other money-making opportunities. There are side activities. You can take on sightseeing flights to points of interest or land-away missions for extra cash. These flights give you an opportunity to fly some of the smaller aircraft in your fleet, allowing you to do some general aviation flights.
After each day, you’ll need to manage your downtime—balancing rest and activities to maintain a healthy work-life balance. This is done at the end of each shift by deciding between a variety of activities. You can improve your stats and timekeeping by investing in items like cars, home upgrades, or even a sim pit. Most items you buy impact you in some way, shape, or form.
Logbook
One last feature worth mentioning is your logbook. Every flight you take is recorded in detail, so you can review your performance and track your progress. The stats and data are there to help you improve or just reflect on how far you’ve come. There are graphs to help you visualise how you fly your aircraft. You can use these to see where you’re doing well and where you need to improve.
Fly the Line has been developed for both MSFS2020, MSFS2024 and X-Plane, using FSUIPC and Unity. It’s currently being tested and fine-tuned. More details on a release date soon. There’s so much more to share, but let’s save that for another day. We’ll be diving into specific features in future updates, so stay tuned to see where Fly the Line is heading. Hope you all enjoyed this introduction to Fly The Line!
