Today Microsoft announced the release date of the first World Update for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and the 19th for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, focusing on Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.
The update has been in high demand for a long time, and Microsoft had to work hard to make it happen. According to the announcement, it’s finally coming on March 11 (as it was previously mentioned, but back then it was not fully confirmed), next week.
As revealed back in September it’ll include 4 photogrammetry (TIN) cities, 7 handcrafted airports, and 75 points of interest.
Besides Santos Dumont Airport (SBRJ) serving Rio de Janeiro, which you can see in the screenshots below with the city itself and a few landmarks, I could identify 4 more on the map.
They are Santarém-Maestro Wilson Fonseca Airport (SBSN) and Fernando de Noronha Airport (SBFN) in Brazil, we’re getting Kaieteur International Airport (SYKA) in Guyana, and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni Airport (SOOM) in French Guiana.
The two remaining airports remain unknown. As far as I know, they weren’t marked on the map at all. We’ll likely learn about them next week.
The update will also include the CAP-4 Paulistinha aircraft that was originally supposed to be sold as the 20th Local Legend. It’ll be free to make up for the turbulent release of the sim.
This follows today’s release of Sim Update 1, which also came with a free aircraft and much more.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also available for PC and Xbox Series X|S following its recent release in November. if you want to see the massive visual difference against Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, you can enjoy our video and screenshot comparison.
Incidentally, a few days ago, we published an extensive interview with Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann about the present situation of the sim and the plans for the future.
A few weeks ago, Microsoft shared an extensive update about its plans for the sim, so you may want to read it to integrate what is said in this interview.
You can also check out our in-depth analysis of how much data the simulator downloads from the cloud, clearing the air from some widespread misinformation that made the rounds over the past few months.