Hey airline directors,

as we said last time, the devlogs will become a little boring until we have a release. No new features will be added as we're only doing some bug fixing and fine tuning.  Let's use this boring time to summarize what will or will not be included in the upcoming release. At the end of the devlog we'll also share our plans for some upcoming versions.

Major New Features in 2.14

• Filling Degree
  This is undeniably the most important new feature for the upcoming version. We vastly improved the way we calculate the filling degree on your and your opponents' flights. At the moment the filling degree is unaffected by your overall reputation or advertising.
• Countries System
  We introduced a new countries system, which allows us to swap territories between countries. Thanks to this we can now simulate wars and decolonization. Of course, players are given the option to ignore wars so territories won't change countries. Unfortunately, the map won't show the border changes, which might be a little confusing at first. We might look into this at some point.
• Country Relations
  Together with the new countries system, we added country relations. This allows us to fine tune traffic flows on a global scale. The relations of the countries will change throughout time. For the time being we only have 2 different periods for the country relations: 1930 - 2003 and 2004 - now. In the future we will add more periods. We also have to tell you we probably won't have all relations set when we release this version. South America, Africa, Middle East and South (-East) Asia are missing at the moment. It is very likely that South-East Asia will be added before the release, possibly along with South Asia.
• Employees
  This is still a work in progress. We have updated the way we calculate how many employees you need in a certain field. Along this we gave employees a satisfaction level. In future versions, if their satisfaction is too low they will go on strike, and influence your airline reputation. You can also educate your employees, which will give you various improvements.
• In Flight Service
  We did a complete overhaul of the way you can set the IFS. You now set the IFS once. This gives us the option to set the IFS with a lot more depth without it becoming annoying. You can now configure meals in detail and set prices yourself. Yet another contribution to a higher level of immersion.
• Cabin Configuration
  Setting up aircraft with similar cabin configurations has been made easier. A lot of different tools have been added to copy anything from a single seat pitch to an entire cabin. You can also set different aircraft with the same configuration at once.
  That being said, the GUI for the seat map received some updates as well. Airliners are now scaled to fit your screen at once, the service rows received some updates to be more realistic, and so on. Some more improvements will be made in 2.15.
• Ex-military Aircraft and Cargo Conversion
  From this version on, ex military aircraft will only be buyable from the second hand market. Some Cargo airliners will now be convertible to passenger aircraft.

Not properly implemented yet in 2.14

• Costs
  At the moment, very little operating costs are implemented. Essentially the only costs are fuel, employees and IFS. This means it will be very easy to make a lot of money. This of course is meant to change in the near future.
• Advertising
  Advertising has currently no influence on your filling degree. It will be reimplemented shortly.
• Reputation
  Similarly, reputation has no influence on your filling degree.
• Luggage costs, flight facilities
  These two things as well will not have an influence on your filling degree in 2.14.

Roadmap for The Airline Project

As promised, we'll also share what our roadmap broadly looks like for the next couple of versions. Please note that some priorities might change over time. The list only includes major features.

• 2.15
  -Finish the final details for the filling degree
  -Connecting Flights
  -Economics balancing and costs
  - Schedulers overhaul
• 2.16
  -AI overhaul
  -Restrictions and Aviation Law
  -Game Creation
• 2.17
  -Alliances and Codesharing
  -Historic Data