I would like to ask, please, whether this feature is already available. I reviewed the video tutorial, but I cannot see the transfer schedule button or "black" schedule designator, anywhere within my fleet. Has the feature not been applied yet?
Another question I have is:
The narrative in the video at timepoint 6:30 states that the "automatic transfer" feature can be used besides transferring to the first start airport, also (quote) "if you have cancellations or other reasons...". Does this mean that if for some reason the flight in the schedule gets cancelled (e.g. wrong airport), the aircraft is automatically transferred to the next airport in schedule?
Will the dropdown list only show aircraft without a schedule, or will we have to scroll through a huge list of planes (for some of us) with and without schedule to select the destination aircraft? (Edit: Is that a search box I see in the dropdown?)
Also, will the automated transfer function take into account long transfer times and immediate activation? Immediate activation books the first scheduled flight after 24h from pressing the activate button, but some aircraft transfers can take longer than 24 hours to arrive. Would the automated transfer send the plane to the origin of the first viable flight, or would we possibly have scheduled flight cancellations due to the aircraft not having arrived yet?
The overall tool and the countering of potential slot blocking looks awesome. The video format is much more illustrative than a large block of text. Thank you!
The Video just shows the current text version, the feature is not available yet.
And yes, automatic transfers are also intended for this scenario.
@kenmuir
It's the same selecting mechanism you already know from route management. You can select the fleet and e.g. enter the aircraft registration to quickly pick the one you want.
If the transfer flight needs more time than available, it's scheduled to where it fits into the schedule as soon as possible. Flights scheduled before the arrival of the transfer flight are automatically cancelled.
I think it goes to a three day delay, or it can be set for a three day delay. Reason being, if it was set for a one-day delay, when the flights came up in the flight screen, there would be three days worth of flights being shown on the flight list. Of course, on a test server, they can be using other programming.
Then again, I'm often wrong on everything, so.. ;)
The tool merely works on scheduling level. When and how you clear the flights for booking is entirely left to the player as it is today. Note that only the flight assignments are moved, not the actual flights booked into the system (as said: just as if you'd have moved the schedule manually).
Concerning automated transfer flights: The system looks at the first flight in the queue and check whether the aircraft is in the right location to start it. If not, it tries to schedule a transfer flight. If that would cause an overlap (TF arrives after departure of first flight) it will cancel flights until it's possible to schedule a TF to the (now) first departure airport in the list. This is what would happen anyway were you to manually schedule the TF or didn't schedule one at all.
There are a few more criteria the system takes into account, but those are probably best put into more detailed documentation once our new wiki is up.
As mentioned somewhere else, the problem isn't too much the tool in itself, but the new "invalid schedule" status which has quite far-reaching implication for the flight system as a whole. It's currently undergoing testing and I'd like to get it ready to ship this week, but as usual I can't promise anything.
Probably not, sorry. It's usually unwise to launch new features on Fridays...we learned that lesson the hard way. But I'm pretty sure it will be ready next week.
The automated transfer improvement is brilliant- since I live in a very different timezone from my airline, being able to shuffle schedules and not have to creatively cancel flights so that I'm awake to transfer the frame for the new schedule is a thing of beauty and wonder.