Is there any program (preferably freeware)that'll automatically populate my simulated world with realistic AI traffic? Everything I look at seems to require a lot of computer effort on my part when I would rather be flying.

http://www.projectai.com/ to start.

Check out www.calclassic.com for the fantastic propliner A.I. packages. All you have to do is start the self-installer for each pack and that's as much effort as is needed.Andy.

Yes, www.projectai.com has got quite a nice number of packages for automatic setup. You need their installer to make them work. Some of the packages are a bit older, so you might see some 2003 traffic, but it's a good thing to start with.There is also World of ai under www.world-of-ai.com. They have a new website with a growing number of packages and they are quite up to date Again, you need their woai installer (not the pai installer). Installing woai packages is even simpler than pai packages, but for now, pai does have more packages (and more of the big airlines).If you still don't have enough, you might want to go for payware packages like Ultimate Traffic.GreetzAlex

In addition to the above, try the Ultimate GA packages here at AVSIM. They are not airline packages but they will add a lot of GA and Bizjet traffic.The AI Mexico package is also very nice, but, of course, it only covers Mexican airlines. I actually like the ai Mexico traffic better than the Mexican airlines that are available from PAI.If you deceide to go payware, Ultimate Traffic does a nice job. It is good out of the box but it is also highly modifiable.