Virtual Air Traffic LogoVirtual Air Traffic
Built for X-Plane 12 • Windows

Over 600.000 real-world flights!
Virtual Air Traffic.

Transform your sim with thousands of dynamic aircraft, seamlessly integrated into X-Plane for authentic sequencing and real-world vectoring. Vat is completely FREE!

✓ Over 600 supported airports worldwide.✓ Traffic schedules refreshed continuously.✓ Dynamic injection (no fixed positions) .✓ True 3D airspace modelling with sequencing!

Latest updates

August 16, 2026 - New BETA release: 0.6.6.
Beta 0.6.6 is out. To download, create an account on the portal page and find the link in your portal page!

  • Fix compatability error 'The specified procedure could not be found.' This prevented the plugin from loading correctly on some systems.
  • Notification popup added when a new plugin version is available.
  • Notification popup added reminding new users to set up their portal account in the plugin UI.
  • Tweaked taxiing speed for better realism.
  • Fixes for incorrect interface scaling on non-default xplane UI scale settings.
  • Added bindable keycommands to toggle the plugin UI and plane labels on/off (find them in the X-Plane keyboard/joystick settings as 'Virtual Air Traffic

August 14, 2026 - New BETA release: 0.6.5.
Beta 0.6.5 is out.

  • Stability enhancements in multithreading and navdata parsing.
  • Lineup & wait feature for departing traffic.
  • Improved traffic separation on arrivals.
  • Made improvements to make landed aircraft clear the runway faster.
  • Added a new tab for arrivals in the area in the plugin UI.
  • Added the ability to search for specific airports on the airports tab.

August 11, 2026 - New BETA release: 0.6.3.
Beta 0.6.3 is out. Lots of improvements on ground handling of aircraft and some performance tweaks. Also did groundwork on building GA VFR traffic. To download, create an account on the portal page and find the link in your portal page!

  • Fix for camera follow-feature to appear below groundlevel.
  • Fix for some scheduled departures to spawn a second time on occasion.
  • Lots of improvements on ground handling and the GCM (global collision manager).
  • Improvements on runway usage, especially with Simbrief integration enabled.

July 13, 2026 - New BETA release: 0.4.0.
Beta 0.4.0 dropped and you are invited to upgrade via your portal (see the button on the top-right corner of this page). No account yet? Please create one for free! Downloads available in your portal page.
Release notes:

  • Performance optimizations!
  • Improvement of Simbrief integration.
  • More Taxi routing optimizations.

March 22, 2026 - Having fun at FSWeekend Lelystad! - New BETA release: 0.3.0.
VAT was at FSWeekend this weekend! Although it is a bit early for great grandstands and stuff, we did talked to a lot of interesting folks there. To everybode we met: it was nice talking to you! Besides that, A new beta is here. Please find the link on your Portal page!
Release notes:

  • Performance optimizations!
  • Improved contrails code.
  • Taxi routing optimizations.
  • Fixed bug in Simbrief runway usage.

March 11, 2026 - New BETA release: 0.1.1.
A new beta version dropped for our testers. Please find the link on your Portal page!
Release notes:

  • Tweaked the landing rollout and proceeding to taxi back to gate logic.
  • Added setting to enable 'direct model matching only', which will disable the fallback logic to find a similar plane if no exact match is found. Enabling this reduces the number of planes shown but can increase the accuracy of the shown planes, since no 'similar plane' will be used if the exact model is not found.
  • Taxi routing optimizations.
  • Various other minor tweaks and optimizations.

February 2026 - Reaching the BETA stage.
Virtual Air Traffic continues to evolve rapidly. The product is still in the Alpha stages and more work needs to be done on several key aspects like Audio, Sequencing and further optimization. Our goal is to slowly move away from using CSL-model texturing and fully use our own models and textures. This is a huge task and might take most of the year to complete.
As most of the core features are at least partially working now, we can slowly move ahead and start working towards our first round of beta testing. Beta applicants will receive full access to the product and our goal is to work iterative to make sure we fix issues as fast as we can. Your help is greatly appreciated :) Please make sure to signup for the beta if you feel like testing out a new product and actively support us to make it better. Thanks!

Built for realism. Optimized for performance.

Features

"Intelligent, real-world traffic that transforms every X-Plane flight into a living aviation experience."

Fully animated models.

Detailed flaps, gear, spoiler and other model animations fully working on all injected models. VAT currently uses the CSL models and is replacing CSL textures by own designs plane by plane. (please note that CLS textures are not part of the purchase)

Fully animated models.

Real-world traffic schedules.

Wordwide coverage of true-to-life flight schedules. We use multiple sources, including operator websites to gather current traffic schedules and keep the traffic around you up-to-date.

Real-world traffic schedules.

Full TCAS integration.

We have fully implemented the 'TCAS Override' functionality in VAT. This will allow X-Plane to display your traffic on X-Plane’s default navdisplays, the G1000, the map and IOS console and also disseminate the information via ADS-B output to external EFB apps like FlyQ and ForeFlight.

Full TCAS integration.

Advanced traffic sequencing

Arriving aircraft are sequenced around eachother and around you! Traffic arriving on final will follow a sequencing algorithm to make sure planes are separated by accepted minimums. (this is currently a BETA feature.)

Advanced traffic sequencing

Advanced model matching

Airports have operators on them which you would expect. Multiple iterations of model-matching are implemented to have a fallback in case a livery for the airline and plane combination is not available.

Advanced model matching

Built fully in native C++

All code is written in C++ and contains some parts of optimized X86 assembly where appropriate to maximize performance and minimize stutters.

Built fully in native C++

Full feature list

FAQs

Find out about the product, plans and development. For support questions, please contact us through support.

What is Virtual Air Traffic?
Virtual Air Traffic is a real-world flight injection and airport operations system for X-Plane 12, designed to bring believable airline traffic, sequencing, and TCAS integration to your sim.
I saw plane X flying over Denmark, but in reallife it is already over Finland ?
Other traffic injection plugins project reallife traffic 1-on-1 into the sim. While this makes for ultra realistic ingame traffic (the plane is at the exact same position in-sim as it is in reallife) it makes it difficult for traffic sequencing to take place, especially around the player's position. Virtual Air Traffic knows the exact schedule of virtually all aircraft departing worldwide and simulates aircraft movements in our own 3d-space virtual environment. It's the Matrix all over again! Virtual Air Traffic simulates where the aircraft would be according to reallife departure times and even makes periodic corrections to those positions by tracking real-time flight data. It then injects aircraft close enough to the player in the Sim. When the plane is in the sim the plane becomes 'alive' and is tracked by the plugin's virtual pilot. The flight is then flown by the plugin until it reaches the gate.
Does VAT uses X-plane's AI system?
No, we do not. While that system is great, it does come with some limitations preventing us from doing what we want - and that is to support potentially thousands of ingame flights. VAT comes with it's own AI system flying the planes once in-game.
Is VAT complex to use?
No, it is most certainly not. One of the design principles is that the Plugin must be easy to use, while staying powerfull in its effect. Basically there is no setup required: just install the plugin and start your flight as you normally would. Give it a few seconds and the world will automatically fill with aircraft of all kinds of operators. For the switch-flippers out there we do have an ingame UI where traffic can be viewed through a departure and arrival board and where performance related tweaks can be configured. It is also recommended to setup the Simbrief integration here as it will allow runway usage to sync up with you pre-filed flightplan.
What are the system requirements?
This product is specifically written for Xplane-12 and supports Windows only. There are plans to make it compatible for both Mac and Linux users, but a specific timeframe has not yet been determined. Rendering loads of models and calculating realtime position movements for potentially thousands of planes can burn some CPU, so we recommend a modern CPU (Intel 12th generation or up or AMD AM5 and upwards sockets) to make full use of the plugin. Memory usage is kept to a minimum, but 32GB+ is still recommended to keep some room left for the sim as well.. ;)
Is VAT free of charge?
Yes! VirtualAirTraffic comes free of charge! You are free to donate through paypal (QR is in the plugin's menu windows) which helps support development and to keep the flight-schedules up-to-date.
Will it impact performance?
Rendering planes comes with a performance hit, but keeping things run smoothly is a core priority to us. VAT is built in native C++ with optimization work focused on minimizing stutters and keeping traffic smooth even in busy areas. You can adjust performance sliders through the plugin menu system.
Is VR supported?
Yes! VAT fully supports VR where planes, contrails and other models are fully visible in VR as well. The menu system is also accessible for VR users. Please note that aircraft labels are not visible in VR currently, due to a limitation in the X-plane windowing subsystem.
virtualairtraffic

Realistic aircraft traffic for X-Plane 12.
Built for performance and realism of airline traffic.

SUPPORT

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