Well, they are essential for me. I rotate through all of my airports on a regular basis (and there are over a hundred of them), so I get value for money with all of them. They are light years beyond default airports where quality/detail/realism are concerned, and that is what I need with respect to immersion.

Edited March 30Mar 30 by Christopher Low

1 hour ago, tpete61 said:

Add-on Airports are a total waste of money.

I rarely fly to or from the same place more than a couple of times.

They are way to expensive to justify this fact.

They fall into the same garbage category of the many add-ons that are on the marketplace.

The marketplace is fast becoming a polluted mess!

 

Well, you are entitled to your opinion. For serious simmers who want to enjoy as much immersion as possible, there is very little to compare between an average default airport and some of the top line airports. To suggest they are a total waste of money is purely subjective. I think you will be very much in the minority with that opinion.

Edited March 30Mar 30 by Rocky_53

1 hour ago, Rocky_53 said:

Well, you are entitled to your opinion. For serious simmers who want to enjoy as much immersion as possible, there is very little to compare between an average default airport and some of the top line airports. To suggest they are a total waste of money is purely subjective. I think you will be very much in the minority with that opinion.

Only from some of the same evangelists that will agree with your assessment as noted in the likes your post received. There are many default airports in the game that are excellent that wasting money on add-ons are a waste of money.

 

 

7 minutes ago, tpete61 said:

Only from some of the same evangelists that will agree with your assessment as noted in the likes your post received. There are many default airports in the game that are excellent that wasting money on add-ons are a waste of money.

 

 

What if you want to fly in/out of an airport that hasn´t got a good default representation? I strongly disagree that add-on airports are a waste of money. I have many of them and I fly to them a lot, not just once or twice.

6 minutes ago, tpete61 said:

Only from some of the same evangelists that will agree with your assessment as noted in the likes your post received. There are many default airports in the game that are excellent that wasting money on add-ons are a waste of money.

Not sure you are the authority on what is a "waste of money" that's a very personal decision, and depends on lots of factors.  For you maybe it is, but for many it is very much not.  You must not be flying into airports that you have been to in real life, because for me at least the immersion breaking of seeing a default airport somewhere I've been before makes me not even want to sim.  Let alone the ground textures, markings, default terminal textures etc. I find to be not even worth flying there.

• wrong font for runway and taxiway signs is the most annoying one as it's relatively easy to do it right, just pick the right font: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threads/finally-icao-font-for-taxiway-signs.20253/
• little or no ground equipment makes an airport feel dead
• no ability to disable static aircraft or having them "on" by default and navigating to some obscure folder to rename static.bgl to static.bak
• default ground equipment
• wrong runway markings
• wonky runway centerlines
• repetitive textures (buildings, RWYs, TWYs, apron)
• missing runway slope if there's one at the real airport
• blurry signs
• wrong font for ground decals
• default jetways
• wrong approach and RWY lighting (missing rabbits, wrong type of lgt type, missing touchdown zone lights)

6 hours ago, tpete61 said:

Add-on Airports are a total waste of money.

I rarely fly to or from the same place more than a couple of times.

They are way to expensive to justify this fact.

They fall into the same garbage category of the many add-ons that are on the marketplace.

The marketplace is fast becoming a polluted mess!

 

I only bought KDEN because it is my home/hub but other than that i find the airports in 2024 more than acceptable 99% of the time. My flightsim budget goes towards planes. 

I buy airports for the same reason folks buy BS aircraft - for the bells and whistles.

dd

17 hours ago, tpete61 said:

Only from some of the same evangelists that will agree with your assessment as noted in the likes your post received. There are many default airports in the game that are excellent that wasting money on add-ons are a waste of money.

I agree that many of the hand crafted airports are nice, but they only cover a tiny fraction of the airports that I want to visit in the simulator. Basic default airports are nowhere near detailed enough for my requirements. They are completely lifeless. I need high quality 3D models/high resolution textures/accurate ground markings/lots of airside clutter etc.

Edited March 31Mar 31 by Christopher Low

20 hours ago, tpete61 said:

Add-on Airports are a total waste of money.

I rarely fly to or from the same place more than a couple of times.

They are way to expensive to justify this fact.

They fall into the same garbage category of the many add-ons that are on the marketplace.

The marketplace is fast becoming a polluted mess!

 

I completely disagree they are a waste of money.  But I completely agree that there are many addons not worth purchasing.  

On 3/28/2026 at 4:15 PM, Nandengo12 said:

Remember when default FS98 scenery was 2-3 white box buildings with gray lines for windows??

You mean like the default MSFS 2024 scenery?

Yes the old internal vs external modelling discussion. 

Unfortunately, rock star marketing shots are normalised now so in order to sell copies the developer has to model every chair and coffee cup in the food court and every landside Hyundai.

Now there was a time where every polygon mattered and why waste them on things never seen. In this age now with 24+GB VGA cards, headroom is abundant.

I'm happy to only see what I see from the flight deck as convincing as possible. So some internal modelling trickery from that POV has merit for me.  

I like the packages that let you switch it all off, if you prefer, eg IniBuilds.  To me that is the right way to do it. Won't change the giant file size though.

My biggest issues with airports:

Firstly, elevation issues.

Secondly, having only MSFSceneryBuilders or MFSG payware options-eg. Dar es Salaam, a major airport in Tanazania only has an awful MSFScenerybuilders payware available and no other payware available, only free mods with zero parallax or interiors same goes with a lot of U.S. airports not done by the major devs that also only have a awful MSFScenerybuilders option.

Finally, lack of adequate apron lighting at airports.

Edited April 1Apr 1 by amsfsx02501