The flyLAT portal and airline management handbook

New airline? Follow this order

1. Set up your first passenger airline.
2. Build the first schedule.
3. Plan maintenance.
4. Use the daily operations and finance guides before expanding.

Already operating? Pick the task you need below. You do not have to read the entire handbook before using one workspace.

Start and run your airline

• Start your passenger airline: aircraft, routes and schedules — Start with an aircraft, a route and a plan.
• Create your first passenger schedule — Build, validate and publish a weekly timetable.
• Aircraft maintenance: keep your airline flying — Arrange maintenance and confirm readiness.
• Your daily airline operations checklist — Review aircraft, departures, people and cash each day.
• Research airports before opening a route — Choose airport pairs your fleet can support.
• Create and manage passenger routes — Create two-way routes and manage their operating state.
• Read your airline finances and plan spending — Read the correct period and budget for growth.

Aircraft and facilities

• Missing MX Records — Register missing maintenance records from Fleet Tools and verify the result.
• Buy an aircraft: compare new and used options — Compare options and confirm delivery.
• Manage aircraft, transfers and availability — Manage location, grounding and ownership actions.
• Build hubs and manage workshop capacity — Build workshops and understand public slots.

People and company policy

• Manage join requests, roles and permissions — Review applicants and assign appropriate access.
• Manage hiring, pilot pay and progression — Configure wages, bonuses, ranks and qualifications.
• Manage company settings and branding — Update company identity and operating policy.

Cargo operations

• CargoLife: buy cargo and complete a manual delivery — Buy, collect, fly and sell cargo.
• CargoLife: manage storage, warehouses and aircraft cargo — Track inventory and manage warehouse capacity.
• Find, accept and complete cargo contracts — Accept suitable work and verify delivered quantities.
• CargoLife crews: availability, dispatch and recovery — Understand current AI restrictions and job recovery.

Flying and finding your way around

• Connect MSFS or X-Plane to the portal — Pair the appropriate bridge or plugin and check live data.
• Prepare and complete a tracked portal flight — Prepare the correct operation and complete its record.
• Find and review flights in your flightbook — Find flights and investigate unexpected results.
• Explore directories, maps and your profile — Use directories, maps, profile and achievements.

Settings, communication and tools

• Manage your account settings and sessions — Review account, sessions and workspace preferences.
• Use messages and coordinate airline work — Coordinate work with the right audience.
• Design and publish airline tickets — Create readable ticket branding and publish it.
• Create a live flight overlay for your stream — Publish a private browser source for your stream.
• Configure Discord flight alerts — Configure event-specific Discord notifications.
• Get support and report a portal issue — Submit an actionable report and follow its progress.

Next steps and solving operating problems

• Why isn't my scheduled flight operating?
• Is your passenger route profitable?
• Grow from one aircraft to a small fleet
• A new pilot's first day in flyLAT
• Buy, lease or finance your next aircraft?

Operational recovery and additional portal tools

• Recover your airline after an operational disruption
• Replace an aircraft in a future schedule
• Understand flight and aircraft statuses
• Sell, retire or return an aircraft
• Troubleshoot simulator connection and flight completion
• Why has my pilot pay or progression not changed?
• Troubleshoot cargo stock, loading and delivery
• Use My Planner for flights, maintenance and movements
• Read and organise your portal email
• Configure SayIntentions.ai VA-Link in the portal
• ParcelLife: route board, staged loads and tracking
• Read DataCenter statistics and leaderboards
• Manage your CEO subscription and billing

Coverage and restricted features

This handbook covers the main user-facing portal areas: airline operations, fleet, facilities, finance, people, cargo, tracked flying, planning, communication, directories, statistics, settings and tools. Detailed workflows are linked above. Access still depends on account features and permissions.

ParcelLife has a restricted-access guide. Freelancer, Executives, Job Board, Announcements and Website Builder remain developer-only menu areas, so this handbook does not present them as general user workflows. Passenger Demand is also a restricted area; use the airport and route research guide for normal planning. Apps is a launcher: follow the guide for the app you open. News, What's New and the Knowledge Base are reading and support resources, while the mobile site is a separate destination rather than proof that desktop-only management tools work on a phone.

Coverage was reviewed against the portal navigation and related source pages on 18 October 2026. This is coverage of the current main workflows, not a claim that every admin screen, experimental feature or error condition has a tutorial.

Why your screen may look different

Portal access depends on your account, company membership, permissions and enabled features. Some pages are owner-only, desktop-only or restricted during development. A button shown to another person is not proof your account should have it.

The guides identify important current limitations, including restricted tools and the CargoLife AI notice. Read the live page before spending or changing an operation. Check What's New for product changes.

How to use these guides

• Confirm the company, aircraft or record before acting.
• Read quotes and confirmations before purchases or consequential changes.
• Verify the resulting state instead of assuming a closed dialog means success.
• Check an existing record before submitting a duplicate operation.
• Use the support guide when the actual result still differs from the expected one.

Small features worth discovering

• Share your live flight with a viewer link
• Open your passenger manifest and see onward connections
• Useful flight tracker controls you might have missed