It has been a slow-motion delay. AAU4 was announced at FSWeekend back in March as a package coming alongside Sim Update 5 in April. SU5 shipped on April 30 without it. A standalone May 5 date was then confirmed. May 5 came and went, and most of the update still isn’t here.
Only the Fokker F.VII made the cut. The MSFS team confirmed on the official forums that the ATR 42/72-600, Antonov An-2, Latécoère 631, and Savoia-Marchetti S.55 and S.55X are “still in the final stages of polish” and will release “as soon as they are ready.” No new date was given.
The Fokker’s release was tied to World Update 21: Australia, with Microsoft framing it around the historical connection to Charles Kingsford Smith’s 1928 transpacific flight in a Fokker F.VIIB-3m named the Southern Cross. It also went free for all players until May 12, which we covered here. Whether the timing was planned that way all along or whether the Australia tie-in became a convenient framing for a partial release isn’t something Microsoft has clarified.
The community reaction has been understandably frustrated. The main complaint isn’t that the aircraft need more time, which most people can accept, it’s that the announcement came on release day itself, with no advance notice that anything had changed.
The four remaining aircraft are the weightier half of what AAU4 was always supposed to deliver. We covered the full scope of the package back in March, and the ATR update in particular has been one of the most anticipated platform updates in recent memory, with a new CFD model, Air Tahiti Highline variant, Lido charts, and full career integration among the highlights. The An-2 overhaul is no small thing either, with a complete fuel and electrical systems rewrite and five new career modes.
For now, there’s no timeline. We’ll post as soon as a new date is confirmed.
