Anyone with experience with these two addons ? I'm looking for something that has an online component so I'm ruling out neofly.

I'm also looking at A pilots Life 2 but I don't see the point of its progression as you can fly any plane you want even if you don't have a licence.

I have tried both. OnAir is excellent and has various levels of difficulty. Keeping afloat in Thunder (the hardest) is possible if you restrain yourself (don't buy airplanes, FBOs, ...), but it is much easier in lower difficulty levels. IMHO, it is the most realistic economic simulation. The downside is that it has a subscription model that keeps many users away from it, and - consequently - that the community is relatively small. FSCharter is in open beta. You can do a lot of meaningful stuff even without premium, i.e., you can test it thoroughly for free. It has a lot of potential, but to me the most sever downside is that it does not generate random routes. Rather, users establish routes for their airlines. Due to the small number of users, that very much limits your selection where to fly.

I am currently back to good old FSEconomy. Not because it is free, but because I already built up a nice network and have good friends there. It has the largest community of all three options, but its simulation is quite old by now, and many airports do not exactly correspond to the current real world anymore. If I would start fresh, I would pick OnAir; I may go back to it eventually.

Peter

Tried OnAir, but gave up after they changed the economy and found it was just taking too long every day (I like to run a fleet) or finances would tank. Other than the shifting sands of the economy I also hated the always online aspect (lose connection and you can be out of luck) and the fact you are paying a subscription.

 

Using AH2 now, despite the fact that Slopey doesn't want it to be a business simulation it works out quite well as one, and if I miss a few days it doesn't matter as my pax pilots keep the £ flowing in !!!..

 

G