If I fly into that airport in real life, then I will see if a reputable seller has developed it, then usually wait for it to go on sale.

 

If not, there are some good free AFCAD on this site.

I only have 2 payware airports.They are Imaginesim Pudong and Bridge ZGGG. I'm a Beijing-based guy and I have a free AFCAD for ZBAA.Buying payware airports is not necessary since there's a lot of good AFCADs for free.Don't forget to buy REX worldwide airports HD,which enhances all default airports and AFCAD airports.

I think like most folk, when I started simming 19 years ago, I went over the top buying Airports to go with the Scenery.  Becomes a bit of a "money pit" if you aren't careful.

Rarely purchase any nowadays outside of the UK.  Happy with my UK2000 collection, alongside Scotflight offerings. 

Only use ORBX for US and Aus/NZ.  Stopped buying their airports as they got more complex.  Great creations that they are, I am not really interested in watching the grass grow or Butterflies dance around.

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Buying payware airports is not necessary since there's a lot of good AFCADs for free.

AFCAD files do not improve the number/quality of buildings/textures/markings/clutter objects/miscellaneous details at airports. If you want a virtual airport to look like a real world airport, then you need to buy payware airports (or install very good quality freeware versions).

Nothing like having proper airport scenery with the correct markings, gates, and features clearly defined. As was mentioned by many, I really agree it ruins a flight when you land and those distinctions are missing or are inaccurate. 

That said though, 20-30$ airports while may not seem much at first, if you get a few it really adds up fast. If they were even cheaper Id probably be sucked into buying even more which would probably supercede previous sum totals. 

But at least its an aspect of simming that keeps some devs in business, and grows the hobby further. Not a requirement to buy them, but as with any hobby it really enhances your main purpose.

In all my simmer life I bought 7 scenery add-ons, two for fs5 and 4 for MSFS / P3D starting with fs9.

Presently I only have ORBX FTX Global installed and plan to upgrade my Madeira X to the recently released upgrade.

Reason is not other than avoiding lower fps or OOMs in my old rig and in the still 32 bit platform that P3D is.

When I was using X-Plane 10 and 11, I used a lot more of airport sceneries, all for free :-)

I bought one scenery area for AEFS2.

I bought Nevada for DCS World.

If those also count, I bought BoM and BoK for IL2 Battle of - The Best Flight Simulator I ever used :-)

 

I collect several airports for a certain region, I like to fly in, ending up with several routes I can fly in that region with like 7 or 8 airports. I've got quite a few in PNW, but that's my first go-to place for VFR. Then I got a rounte from England, over the Netherlands, north of Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Vidan's Denmark airports are around 10-15 bucks each and Dutch airports are free, from NL2000. Then I've got several bigger airports I use with the Dash8, Boeings and Concorde.

And not everything has to be payware, there are plenty of very nice freeware airports to get. Like I said NL2000 and OZx has some great airports for Australia, I've also found several or Canada.

It's like a growing collection. When I land at some place once, I'm not going to buy an airport for it, but if it turns out I like the route, over time I will likely buy one or more airports.

Or like with ORBX, if you buy a region, a lot of smaller airports already have been customised. Then there are the Global freeware airports that fill in quite a few already and on top of that, if you buy an airport every now and then, you end up with a nice collection for a reasonable amount of money.

And everyone does this in their own way, some are active collectors, while others just get a few important airports along their steady routes.

I find that certain iconic airports that I have flown into numerous times IRL really need to be payware for me to maintain the realsim. I say iconic on a subjective basis because of course everyone's opinion is different. For example, flying into Dubai just wouldn't be the same to me without the Burj Khalifa and world islands, plus of course the distinctive shaped terminals, whereas others could care less I suppose. I don't just buy every release, there needs to be a reason or personal interest in that airport. Otherwise P3D default and REX world airports suits me fine. 

I have Hundreds invested in pay ware airports but have stopped using the heavy drag ones mostly COUTI powered. True defaults textures may not be pretty but neither are single digit FPS, missing runway and taxiway markings, and building textures because my system is over loaded with excess scenery. With default plus REX Wide World OF Airports I can move my scenery sliders up and get just as impressive eye candy. As others have said there are plenty of good free ware works. I now use that airport money for other things.   

I'm afraid to count!  I rarely fly into a default destination.

payware airports fall into two categories for me:

1) major hubs or airports that I will otherwise fly into a lot.  These are usually day one, full price purchases.

2) Airports that are interesting, somewhere I will fly into occasionally, but don't otherwise fall into the above category.  These airports I buy on sale.  That's why I think it's really important for developers to have sales, otherwise there's a whole swath of airports i'll never buy, and they'll never get my money for.  Flytampa KBUF is a great example for me in this category 

Like many, I bought more than I should have when I first started out then finally got away from "collecting" airports.  Not that there is anything wrong with that but I became more selective.  I went the route of "gotta buy my hometown airport" (San Diego KSAN) first, like others, then I started collecting airports of places I have either lived or worked.  From places like Hong Kong's Kai Tak to Dusseldorf to Washington D.C., it has brought back wonderful memories so to me they are worth it.

Plus I do like to search/find little hidden gems that are freeware.  That gets me out of the rut of only flying to the same destinations.  While several simmers could care less about airports and only focus on the utmost realistic aircraft, I find it an indispensable part of this great hobby to take me away for a few hours to magical places around the world.

 

 

When I got started again about a year ago I went a bit crazy and bought quite a few.  I bought the typical ORBX global, UTX, etc addons full price.  I also got a few airports that I knew I would use a ton right away (T2G SEA, a few FSDT).  The rest I bought on sale/waited for holiday sales and spent way more than I planned.  I got all of the FSDT (at about 50% off when combining the PC Aviator 10% off Tuesday, a coupon I had from them, and the holiday sales), Flightbeam, several from Tropicalsim and LatinVFR.  The only recent one I bought was Pacsim SLC, and even that I got at a good discount (again Tuesday at PCA and a $5 off coupon I had).  I have a huge list that I want that includes a bunch of FlyTampa, more from the above developers, as well as some random ones in the US.  But, I'll wait for sales since I still have airports that I haven't flown in to yet.  Once I complete what I want for the US, I'll likely branch out to Europe and after buying the ORBX Europe stuff, buy a lot of the major hubs there to start.  I'll probably go for the PMDG heavies as well and hopefully the Aerosoft A300 will be out.  

So, the point being, while I've curbed my spending quite a bit since the wife and I are trying to buy a house, I still have purchased a lot and will likely do a lot more once sales hit.

I only fly around the UK and Ireland, so being a UK2000 beta tester is rather handy 

For me, flying into a quality designed airport is an important part of the excitement of the adventure.  Lately, I seem to gravitate towards the ORBX airports for my GA flying.  Superbly done!   But FSDT, T2G, Aerosoft are great for my tube liners as well.

 

JOHN

It's strange, though. For the people who are still buying away for FSX/P3D, what will become of that investment if X-Plane is really the next big thing? Or if most of it is invalidated by the switch to 64bit, or DTG Sim becomes the place to be......... Or even Aerofly if things go well.

I would think that a lot of people would be in a bit of a holding pattern right now, waiting to see which way the wind is blowing......