ATAv Celebrates Two Years of Operations!

While many are spending Christmas Eve eagerly awaiting tomorrow, ATAv is celebrating. Two years ago today we opened the doors for pilots of all ages and backgrounds, to come fly with at least one passion: ATA.I've been at ATA Virtual since day one, and I can attest to the growth of the VA not only in terms of the website, but also the community. We're a tight-knit group, but somehow we've been able to maintain that even with more than 200 pilots. That takes some work.For our two year anniversary, Matthew Laiter produced a video for the VA. Matt has been at ATAv for over a year, and is our Employee Relations Director. He has done previous videos in the past for the VA, however, I think he has shot this one out of the ballpark. We think you'll agree:http://www.atavirtual.com/index.php?view=birthday The video features the real-world ATA's fleet; the Boeing 737-300, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 757-200, Boeing 757-300, and Lockheed L1011. The airports included are Chicago-Midway (KMDW), Indianapolis (KIND), Dallas/Ft. Worth (KDFW), Los Angeles (KLAX), Seattle (KSEA), Honolulu (PHNL) and Oakland (KOAK). The video highlights the extreme diversity of the VA and our flying operations.Before I became a member of ATA Virtual, I had absolutely no clue that ATA was the largest charter operator in North America, or that ATA was one of the biggest transporters of the U.S. military, moving more than 20% of all U.S. military personnel across the world. Nor did I know that while running the company under this complex and often chaotic schedule of operations, ATA maintained a committed side of the company focusing on the scheduled service business. Out of the Midway hub and Hawaii, ATA continues to fly passengers across the Pacific and to assorted destinations on the mainland United States.ATAv has done our best to emulate the real ATA's charter operations. While making a "schedule" for charter flights is in itself an contradiction, we simply decided to keep a record of all ATA charter flights we discovered, and compile them into a schedule-like format. The result is astounding, we have over 2,000 charter flights for pilots to choose from. These are all based off real world charter flights ATA has done too. The best part is, every charter has a story behind it.Flights 5901, 5903 and 5905 were charters for the United Nations, from Jakarta, Indonesia, and making stops in the Middle East, before ending in Beruit, Lebanon. These charters made ATA the first U.S.-flag carrier to land on Lebanese soil in years!Flight 6166 was bringing a WWF (wrestling) team from the United States for matches in various destinations in Europe. The 757-200 they were on made stops in the Scotland, Italy, Great Britain, and Germany!Flight 5079 and 5080 are regular "fixed" military charters from Seattle to Yokota AFB in Japan, and continuing onto Okinawa, Japan. The flight is done every Saturday, with the L1011 TriStar usually ferrying in from our headquarters in Indianapolis, or sometimes the occasional ferry from Dallas/Ft. Worth, a major charter operating base for ATA.Flight 5003 and 5004 are down to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, transporting Navy personnel to the prison. Flight 6022 was transporting U.S. State Department employees to Pakistan. During the World Cup, ATA operated numerous 757-300's to and from Mexico City to Cologne/Bonn, Germany, bringing fans and team members to the game.And you thought I was exaggerating when I said every charter had a story? :(I could go on and on about our scheduled service too, our code sharing with Southwest, and even ramble on with some more interesting charter stories, but I think you get the point. If you don't mind being on call 24 hours of the day, don't mind flying into sandstorms in Kuwait, don't mind spending your Christmas bringing troops home on R&R, then join the 200+ other ATAv pilots, who are proud to wear the ATAv wings signifying the sheer skill and experience needed to operate these flights...Check us out today at www.atavirtual.com