Install Community Airports in MSFS 2024

Every addon airport, freeware or payware, is a scenery package: a folder of compiled files the sim loads at startup. MSFS 2024 looks for these in the Community folder. Put a valid package there, start the sim, and the airport exists; remove it and the airport is gone. That's the entire mechanism - everything else is logistics around getting the right packages into that folder and keeping them current.

Find an airport on a sharing site, download the zip, close the sim, extract the package into the Community folder, restart. It works, and for one or two favorite payware fields it's fine. The friction shows up at scale:

• Updates are on you. The author ships a fix, and nothing tells you. Stale packages accumulate quietly.
• Sim updates shake things loose. After a big sim update, some addons need new versions - cue the round of re-downloading and reinstalling.
• Group flying multiplies it all. Six friends, one custom field: six manual installs, and six more every time it changes. Someone always has the old version.

Project Airports treats community airports as a shared, living world rather than a pile of zips. Pilots build fields in a browser editor, the platform compiles them into standard MSFS 2024 packages, and the free companion app keeps your sim in sync:

1. 1Install the free app
   Grab it from the download page and sign in with a free account.
2. 2Pick your regions
   Choose the parts of the world you fly. The app installs every published community airport in those regions - browse what's out there in the airport directory first if you like.
3. 3Let it sync
   The app installs and updates packages only while the sim is closed, so nothing fights MSFS for its files. New and updated airports arrive on their own.
4. 4Fly
   Synced fields appear in Free Flight search like stock airports. Flying them earns Aeros, the in-game currency - visiting other pilots' fields literally pays.

Whichever route you take, two habits keep a scenery library sane: install and remove packages only while the sim is closed, and when an airport misbehaves after a sim update, check for a newer package before debugging anything else. Synced airports handle both automatically - rebuilt packages are delivered to the app, so "is my version current?" stops being your question to answer. If something ever does look wrong, the troubleshooting guide covers the usual suspects.