ATG Traffic - Future Improvements to Airline Distribution and Airport-Specific Liveries
Hello Francis and the Bravo Airspace team,
First of all, I would like to say that I think the ATG concept is fantastic. It adds a huge amount of immersion, especially on Xbox, and it is one of the few ways to make airports feel more alive and realistic.
I was wondering if there are any updates regarding future improvements to airline distribution and airport-specific liveries.
While using ATG, I have noticed that some airlines seem to appear too frequently at airports where they would not normally be so common. For example, I often see large numbers of aircraft such as Brussels Airlines or Sun Country at airports where their presence would be limited in reality.
At the same time, some major hub carriers appear far less frequently than expected. One example I recently noticed was London Heathrow, where there were very few or no British Airways aircraft visible, which felt quite unrealistic considering Heathrow is British Airways’ main hub.
I completely understand the technical limitations involved, especially on Xbox, and I know that achieving realistic traffic distribution is extremely challenging. However, I was wondering if there are any plans to improve this aspect in the future so that airports can display a more realistic mix of airlines based on their real-world operations.
I was also curious whether there is any news regarding the work being done with Asobo and the simulator’s traffic system. Do you have any idea when it might become possible to take greater control over airline placement and airport-specific traffic behaviour?
One interesting thing I noticed is that even when I set traffic completely OFF in the simulator, I still sometimes see ATG liveries appearing on static aircraft. So it seems that at least some parts of the package are still being applied even without active traffic enabled.
Thank you again for the work you are doing. ATG has become one of my favourite add-ons and I am very interested to hear what future improvements may be possible.
Francis @LeadDeveloper2026-06-03 16:44:03.626ZHi Francesco,
If you click on this post. You will see that we are on hault until Asobo does the changes necessary. (Playboy)
https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/t/mcp-error-uploading-project-microsoft-team-doesnt-have-answers/17750/22The truth is that this project has more room for expansion. More fixes. More cool things. But we need to override Asobo's package which is always taking lead and controlling what's displaying.
I've pitched items to wasm developer to force control the traffic. Asobo also controls this. They've also are controlling the deactivation of traffic models from your LIBRARY! And this happened after the release of ATG.
I think they are working with good faith but covering their butts because Microsoft prefers to prevent any complications with users and so they are handling things as they would normally do.
Keep in mind that anything with TEXT can't override their work. Only textures. This is why the default/house liveries were white (as seen at airports in real life but not that many like in the sim). It was either wait for them to finish making modifications or release and explain the masses the details behind it all. And here we are.
But ATG has a least 4-5 years of update life (until maybe FS2028?)
Regarding EGLL, for me on XBOX BAW normally dominates the scene. What happens is that the game randomly, and too quick, places the any popular airline. If ATG dominated the Asobo package then it will make space for the correct airlines. This was a while back on XBOX X landing at EGLL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T3zuS9gXyo&t=749s You get to see ATG BAW.
Another element that helps the add-on is the airport parking codes. This helps the game place the correct airlines at a even better chance then with default airports.
So yes, there's more updates coming and there's a simple one uploading in several days, fixing some art work and airline ICAOs. I will be replacing the default/house liveries (Sun Country) with something less popular until we get control of the show.
- FFrancesco @Frans
Hi Francis,
Thank you for the detailed explanation. It helps a lot to better understand the limitations ATG is currently facing because of the way Asobo handles traffic and liveries.
I have a couple of observations and questions from my testing on Xbox Series X.
First, I noticed that ATG liveries seem to appear even when I set all traffic completely OFF in MSFS 2024. Is this expected behavior?
If this is normal, it is actually great news from a stability perspective because many Xbox users currently disable traffic entirely to reduce stutters, memory issues and black screens. Being able to keep traffic OFF while still seeing ATG liveries would be a huge advantage.
The second thing I noticed is that I still struggle to get the correct airlines at the correct airports.
I tested Frankfurt (EDDF) and London Heathrow (EGLL) again using:
- Traffic OFF
- Offline AI Traffic
- Real-Time Online Traffic
I also tried the workaround suggested by Bravo Airspace (switching Parked Aircraft from Medium to Off and then back to Medium).
The liveries do change, but they are still usually not the expected ones.
For example:
- At Frankfurt I would expect Lufthansa to dominate the airport, but I often see very few Lufthansa aircraft, sometimes almost none.
- At Heathrow I would expect large numbers of British Airways aircraft, but instead I mostly see US carriers such as American Airlines and United.
- Sky Country and Brussels Airlines still appear very frequently compared to what would be realistic.
So regardless of whether I use Traffic OFF, Offline AI, Real-Time Traffic, or the parked-aircraft refresh trick, I still rarely get the airlines that should actually dominate those airports.
Do you think this is entirely caused by the current Asobo traffic system, or do you believe there may still be opportunities to improve airport-specific airline distribution once Asobo gives developers more control?
I absolutely love the concept of ATG and I think it is one of the most immersive add-ons available on Xbox. I am just hoping that eventually we’ll be able to see airports such as Frankfurt, Heathrow, Zurich, Atlanta, etc. populated primarily by the airlines that actually belong there.
Thank you again for all the work you and the team are doing.
Best regards,
Francesco
Francis @LeadDeveloper2026-06-07 01:19:46.438ZRegarding the mismatch.
Everyday I think about it. And in between other tasks I've been researching.
Something interesting I found out is that this is happening because of the parking spots at airports.
Each airport gate needs to have the airline ICAO assigned to it. Since the majority of airports do not have them, I'm assuming the game is combining the data they get from FlightAware activity and the game is randomly fitting any type of airline.So, I believe I'm going to make a couple of tests in the next days because I need to know if this is the main issue.
This also happens with the freeware traffic packs when I don't use their external software's which manipulate the game traffic. I would see the same issue.I'm also looking into the chances of assigning the correct ICAO to parking spots via a WASM add-on but at the moment I can't think of the logic and so I have to see what a developer I've been working with can offer for this fix.
On top of it all, I need to figure this out with Asobo. I will be opening a new thread regarding a solution. Why did I wait so long to open a new thread? Because I need to have a well written post regarding the answers I need. They are sensitive with shallow questioning. I need to know how to overcome this. Because our traffic airlines have assigned regions to each aircraft variant and it's not working.
And so for example Avianca goes to London Heathrow but I keep seeing the Avianca A320. Why? because of the parking spots are not big enough? Avianca has 787s. But I'm unsure.The Sun Country livery is removed for the next update. But it's not the answer to the issue. It's most likely be airport parking. I THINK the game needs to be told what to park.
But there's so many airports, how will we do it? At this time I'm unsure.
And what about the 3rd party airports (if the concept works)? We'll have to find a way to include them on a separate package which I'll need to speak to the marketplace manager in attempts to make it free. (I'm unsure if they'll allow it).But I hope users don't feel frustrated about it because the game is boring and flat without the add-on. Even if Brussels and Sun Country keep appearing. Live traffic gives you the right livery.
What I recommend is to simply keep the live traffic and remove parked aircraft quantity if necessary.
- FFrancesco @Frans
Hi Francis,
First of all, thank you for such a clear, honest and detailed reply. It’s genuinely appreciated. It’s obvious that you’re putting a lot of effort into understanding the problem instead of simply looking for quick fixes, and that level of dedication is one of the reasons why many of us continue to support this project.
I also want to say that, despite the current limitations, ATG remains one of the most immersive add-ons available on Xbox and it makes the simulator feel far more alive than the default experience.
Please know that many of us are fully behind this project and understand that some of these issues are outside of your direct control. If additional testing, comparisons or feedback from users would ever be useful while you continue researching the parking and airline assignment issues, I would personally be more than happy to help in any way I can. I’m always willing to test different settings, airports, traffic configurations or anything else that might help gather useful data.
Thanks again for taking the time to explain what’s happening behind the scenes and for continuing to push for improvements. We really appreciate the work you and the team are doing.
Francesco
- Francis @LeadDeveloper2026-06-09 17:51:11.043Z
THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your support and realism into the matter.
I was going to do some airport testing but I need to push it for the weekend. (Due to personal obligations outside flight sim.)
I think I'll be uploading a little update for ATG at the moment. And I've reached out to Asobo (hopefully my thread is good enough for them)
https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/t/traffic-unable-to-spawn-in-correct-assigned-region/18042As soon as I return this weekend I will do an airport test. And I will be looking out for Asobo's response.
I'm thinking maybe once the parking issue is fixed we'll move towards asking Microsoft to allow a EXPERIMENTAL ULTRA mode for traffic quantity on console.
But im unsure if they will let it happen. Due to the fact that most users do not read and do not seek knowledge on the purpose of a "experimental" option which will clog zendesk support.Let's keep moving forward. Thank you again.