If you spend time at busy airports in Microsoft Flight Simulator, you have probably noticed that AI airliners tend to sit at their gates like very expensive statues. Aircraft arrive and park, but around them there is usually nothing happening: no vehicles, no crew, no passengers. ApronLife, a freeware utility now available on Flightsim.to, aims to change that by adding complete ground operations around the AI aircraft already parked in your sim.
🔆 ApronLife is an external application that runs alongside Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and 2020. It does not create traffic of its own. Instead, it serves whatever aircraft your existing traffic setup has already parked, whether that comes from Beyond ATC, SayIntentions, VATSIM or a similar tool. It relies on FSLTL or AIG models for the aircraft themselves, and door positions are read directly from those models. GSX Pro is optional, but it widens the experience considerably, adding things like buses, stairs at remote stands, passengers and GSX liveries. Without it, ApronLife falls back on the simulator's own vehicles.
A full turnaround, in the right order
Each aircraft receives a proper turnaround rather than a random collection of vehicles. Ground power, fuel trucks (or hydrant dispensers on widebodies), catering, lavatory and water service, belt loaders and baggage tugs with carts all take part, and widebodies get container loaders with dollies carrying LD3 containers. The sequence is modeled on real-world airport planning charts from Airbus and Boeing, with different plans for narrowbodies, widebodies and turboprops. Freighters get their own version with no passengers, buses or bridges.
The human element is covered as well. Pilots and flight attendants leave after the passengers, a cleaning team boards between flights, and the new crew arrives before boarding begins. Wingwalkers, loadmasters and baggage handlers stand around the aircraft, marshallers guide arriving traffic into the stand, and a flight attendant greets passengers at the door. At remote stands, buses shuttle passengers to and from stairs, complete with GSX passenger barriers.
Jet bridges are a major part of the package. ApronLife docks bridges to AI aircraft by placing an invisible helper aircraft at the stand, without touching the flight plans or behavior of your traffic program. Version 1.4.7 now supports the multi-jetway setups from iniBuilds airports in MSFS 2024, so widebodies get two or three bridges on their doors, much like your own aircraft. If a bridge looks wrong, a Re-dock button in the app lets you fix it quickly.
Things worth knowing before you install
After updating to 1.4.7, you should open ApronLife once and then restart MSFS 2024, since the jet bridge helper package has changed. The tool also asks for the location of your Community folders on first launch. There are some limitations as well. Jet bridge behavior depends on how the airport scenery defines its gates, and MSFS itself occasionally undoes a docked bridge under heavy load or when it stays out of view for a while. The developer's notes also point out that FSLTL and AIG aircraft have fixed doors, so those doors stay closed during turnarounds. Only the airport nearest to you is served at any given time.
ApronLife is available in English, Portuguese, Spanish and French, comes with an in-app guide and log tools for support, and has an active Discord community for bug reports and airport feedback.
Download and support the developer
ApronLife is free, and it is easy to see the amount of work behind it, with frequent updates responding to community reports. If it makes your favorite airports feel more alive, consider supporting the developer through Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi or Gumroad. Even a small donation helps fund further development. You can ➡️ download ApronLife on Flightsim.to.
about 1 hour ago