We came up with the idea to create our own alliance.
Answers are published as the CEO wrote them, spelling included.
About the CEO
Can you tell us a bit about yourself? For example; how old you are, what your background with flying in general is and what brought you to creating your own Virtual Airline.
I’m 29 years old, I’ve been into flying for the last 5years or so (Just before I lost my mancave to my youngest child). I’m a HGV mechanic by day. I always liked the idea of flying for my own airline but didn’t have the know-how for web design, SQL PTP ETC ETC. I met our owner at another VA and after a brief spell away from each other we found ourselves dreaming of the same thing and alas WeGo Airways was born
How it started
When did you start your Virtual Airline?
WeGo Airways was created over 2 months before we officially opened our hanger doors on the 1st February 2015
Success
Do you consider your Virtual Airline successful?
How do you rate success? We don’t have many pilots and some of those that sign up don’t complete sign up or only fly a few times. But we currently have 30 active pilots who currently fly regularly. We always try to accommodate pilot’s requests and will always help if they have any difficulties.
Best moment
What is your most interesting experience with your Virtual Airline, what has happened that makes you think so?
We came up with the idea to create our own alliance. We added several real-world airlines (currently 60 real world airlines) with all their schedules and fleet. Although it is difficult to manage it is so interesting to see how fleets are rotated and schedules are tweaked.
Hard times
Did you have any bad experiences with your Virtual Airline?
I wouldn’t call any of our experiances bad. Anything “bad” that happens is just a lesson. Every day is a school day right?
Pilots coming and going
What do you think of your Virtual Airline’s flow of new and leaving VA pilots? Is there something you do to attract more pilots? And why do you think some pilots leave your Virtual Airline?
New pilots are hard to come by. When you don’t have a real world airline backing you (whether they know or not) with a name you have to try a lot harder to get your name out there. We can only really advertise on forums and remarks on VATSIM. VA-list is a major source of new pilots for us. We tend to keep our pilots that do join and fly for us in their allotted time. But people have ever changing opinions, views and expectations.
Fleet and liveries
What types of planes does your Virtual Airline use and do you have all the custom liveries available for your VA?
We have all sorts of aircraft in the fleet. From the 60 real world airlines with their fleets (current and historic) to the WeGo charter options where we have anything from a baby cessna to the queen of the skies. A lot of the major developers (PMDG, Aerosoft etc) do have a WeGo livery to go with them.
Online networks
Does your VA fly on a network? If so, what do you think about it? Do you feel it supplements the general flying experience, what do you think of the network in general and is it required for your pilots to fly on this network?
WeGo allows people to fly offline or online via VATSIM, IVAO, FS Cloud etc. And although VATSIM will allow us to advertise via remarks not a lot of our pilots do fly online. I think that offline flying is a major draw in to our pilots. It wasn’t long ago when a lot of VA’s made you fly online but now these times are changing.
Flight tracking
Do you use any flight tracking software? If so, which one, and are you happy about the service it provides? Would you like to improve it for example?
We use kACARS from fs-products. We love the support from Jeff and he is always willing to help and adapt/custom code his software to assist us to help us get what we want. We update our tracker software roughly once a year with new features.
Developer offers
Do you make use of the offers some developers / distributors have for Virtual Airlines? Do you think these developers / distributors have good offers? And does it fit your Virtual Airline policy?
We have partnerships with the likes of Aerosoft and FS2Crew and where possible we also pass discounts onto our pilots.
Website
Does your Virtual Airline have a custom made internet web page or do you use, for example, PHPVMS and equivalents? Are you happy about your VA’s web page?
We use PHP-VMS but have a custom built website. We have many custom built modules by our very own webmaster as well as modules from crazy creatives etc
The year ahead
And lastly, what are your expectations for your Virtual Airline in the coming twelve months?
We have big plans for WeGo Airways in the coming months. From new airlines to new tours check us out and Sign up at WeGo Airways to find out what we have to offer you. With 72,034 schedules and 8,222 aircraft currently in the system, Plus our own charter operations theres bound to be something for you.
The original questionnaire
This is the questionnaire as the CEO sent it to us, in PDF.
