Ankara will be connected with Munich on 4 daily rotations with Airbus A321. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country’s second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of 938 meters (3,077 ft) and as of 2008 the city had a population of 4,500,000. Esenboga International Airport, located in the north-east of the city, is the main airport of Ankara. In 2009, ESB served around 6 million passengers, 4 million of which were domestic passengers. Esenboga International Airport was awarded as the best airport in Europe by ACI Europe in 2009.

Belgrade is to be connected with Frankfurt on 4 daily rotations with Boeing 737-500. Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. With a population of around 1.7 million it is one of the largest cities in Southeastern Europe. Its name in Serbian translates to “White city”. Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is Serbia’s busiest airport. Named after Nikola Tesla, the airport is situated 12 km (7.5 mi) west, of central Belgrade, in the Municipality of Surcin, surrounded by Syrmia’s fertile lowlands. Passengers on the right hand side of planes descending from the east have a view of downtown Belgrade, especially the districts of Cukarica and Novi Beograd. In the past, when weather conditions were poor, aircraft were diverted to Nis Constantine the Great International Airport, which is 230 km (143 mi) south. However, since late 2005 a CAT IIIb ILS system has been introduced and aircraft can land and depart in the heaviest of fog, which in past years led to the airport’s closure in late December and early January.

Bologna will be connected with Frankfurt on 4 daily totations with Boeing 737-300. Home to the oldest university, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, Bologna is one of the most developed cities in Italy. Bologna often ranks as one of the top cities, in terms of quality of life in Italy. This is due to its strong industrial tradition, its wide range of highly-developed social services, and its physical location at the crossing-point of the most important highways and railways in the country. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, and it has a rich history, art, cuisine, music and culture, and was made 2000′s European Capital of Culture. Bologna is home to Guglielmo Marconi International Airport, expanded in 2004 by extending the runway to accommodate larger aircraft. It is the tenth busiest Italian airport for passenger traffic (over than 4 million/year in 2007) and is an intercontinental gateway. It is approximately 6 km (3.75 miles) northwest the town center in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, about 200 km (125 miles) south-east of Milan. The airport is named after Bologna native Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian electrical engineer and Nobel laureate.

Gothenburg will be connected with Frankfurt on 4 daily rotations with Boeing 737-300. It is the second-largest city in Sweden (after Stockholm). Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 512,754, with 510,491 in the urban area and total of 926,654 inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Gothenburg is home to many students, as the city includes both the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. Volvo Cars was founded in Gothenburg in 1927. The city is a major centre in Sweden for sports and home to the celebrated IFK Goteborg football team and the Frolunda Indians ice hockey team among others. Gothenburg-Landvetter Airport is an international airport serving  Gothenburg. With 4.3 million passengers in 2006 it is Sweden’s second-largest airport (after Stockholm-Arlanda).

Izmir is to be connected with Munich on 4 daily rotations with Airbus A320. It is Turkey’s third most populous city and the country’s second largest port city after Ä°stanbul. It is located along the outlying waters of the Gulf of Ä°zmir on the eastern shoreline of the Aegean Sea. Its port is Turkey’s primary port for exports in terms of the freight handled. The city hosts an international arts festival during June and July, and the Ä°zmir International Fair, one of the city’s many fair and exhibition events, is held in the beginning of September every year. Adnan Menderes International Airport is an airport serving Ä°zmir and is named after former Turkish prime minister. It is located 18 km (11 mi) southwest of the city.

Milan was already served by Lufthansa Virtual, but Linate airport will be connected, too. Lufthansa Virtual will commence flights from Frankfurt to Linate on 4 daily rotations with Boeing 737-300. Milan is a city in Italy and the capital of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1,315,000, while the urban area is the largest in Italy and the fifth largest in the European Union with a population of 4,345,000. An international and cosmopolitan city, 15% of Milan’s population is foreign born. The city remains one of Europe’s main transportation and industrial hubs, and Milan is the EU’s 10th most important centre for business and finance with its economy being the world’s 26th richest by purchasing power. The Linate Airport, which is near the city limits, is mainly used for domestic and short-haul international flights, with over 9 million passengers in 2007.

Oslo will be connected with Frankfurt (Boeing 737-500) and Munich (Airbus A319) on 4 daily rotations. Oslo is the capital and largest city in Norway. It is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. Oslo is considered a global city and for several years, it has been listed as one of the most expensive cities in the world along with such other global capitals as Zurich, Geneva, Copenhagen, Paris, and Tokyo. In 2009, however, Oslo regained its status as the world’s most expensive city. Oslo Airport, Gardermoen is the main airport serving Oslo. It acts as the main domestic hub and international airport for Norway, and the second-busiest airport in the Nordic countries. A hub for Scandinavian Airlines and Norwegian Air Shuttle, and a focus city for Wideroe, it is connected to 25 domestic, 27 European and 5 intercontinental destinations. More than 19 million passengers traveled through Oslo Airport in 2010, of which 8.6 million were domestic – making Gardermoen the sixth-busiest domestic airport in Europe.

Samara will be connected with Frankfurt on 4 daily rotations with an Airbus A319. Samara is one of the largest cities in Russia. The metropolitan area constitutes the population of more than 3 million people. Formerly a closed city, Samara is now a large and important social, political, economic, industrial and cultural center of European Russia, which in May 2007 played host to the European Union—Russia Summit. Kurumoch International Airport handles flights throughout Russia, Central Asia and to Frankfurt and Prague.

Venice is to be connected with Frankfurt on 4 daily rotations with Airbus A320. Venice is a city in northern Italy known both for tourism and for industry, and is the capital of the region Veneto, with a population of about 272,000. The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy. The saltwater lagoon stretches along the shoreline between the mouths of the Po and the Piave Rivers. Venice is served by the Marco Polo International Airport named in honor of its famous citizen. The airport is on the mainland and was rebuilt away from the coast; however, the water taxis or Alilaguna waterbuses to Venice are only a seven-minute walk from the terminals. A modern terminal, opened in 2002 but already close to its full capacity, hosts all scheduled and charter flights, including some long-haul flights to the Middle East and North America.

Lufthansa Virtual Team
www.dlhva.com

Lufthansa Virtual (or LHVA for short) opened for business today, on 1st February with just one goal: to be the biggest airline on SimMiles. LHVA partly accomplished this already as it is the biggest airline on SimMiles network in the following categories:

• Number of routes
• Number of flights (around 3500)
• Number of aircraft in fleet (around 150)

LHVA is setting new standards for virtual airlines on SimMiles to follow by implementing “Destination of the Month”, “Pilot of the Month” and many more innovations rarely seen on SimMiles. LHVA will have a great forum community on which pilots will be able to share their experience and talk about latest news from LHVA, real-world or virtual aviation. All staff positions are occupied by six professional and dedicated people. LHVA also has a person that works in administration of real-world Lufthansa, which means our schedules and overall realism are on highest levels.

LHVA currently simulates only Lufthansa’s mainline flights, but we will work hard to implement flights of Lufthansa Regional, CityLine and similar airlines. European routes are covered with eight daily flights (four rotations)! We recently teamed-up with BMI Virtual, meaning that even more routes are on our pilot’s disposal.

We started accepting pilot applications and it might take us up to a few days to accept them all because there are really a lot of them. If you didn’t apply already, it’s a perfect time to do so.

You will receive more information when your application gets approved.

Please note that our web site is still under construction.

Thank you!
Ivo Pezelj
Lufthansa Virtual
Chief Operating Officer