Airport pages now show who flies there
Earlier today visits went live: fly low around an airport for two minutes and the visit counts, and visits on other days move that airport up from Visitor to Home base. Until now, though, you could only see that while you were in the air. The airport page didn't know, the map didn't know, and the airport you had been flying around all week looked the same as one you had never been near.
On the airport page there's a new section, "Pilots who visit". It gives the number of pilots who have visited, the total number of visits and the date of the latest one, then breaks the pilots down by tier. Under that are two short lists. Regulars are the pilots with the most days at that airport, up to ten, and the list only appears once at least two people have visited, because a board of one is just one person's score. Recently visited shows the last five pilots by date. Each pilot appears with their avatar in the frame of their rank, the same one you see in the lobby and on profiles, and a tap on the picture shows the rank crest.
We show dates only, never times. A day tells you who comes to this field. A time of day would tell people when somebody is usually at home, and we don't want the page saying that.
Names are on by default, because this is a game and finding out who else flies around your airport is half the fun. If you'd rather not appear, sign in, open any airport page and untick Show my name on airport pages under "Your visits here". You disappear from both lists on every airport straight away. Your visits still count in the totals, and the page says how many pilots keep their visits private.
Your own standing is in the same section when you're signed in: your tier at that airport, how many days you have, when you last came and how many more days the next tier needs.
On the map every airport card now says how many pilots have visited it. Airports you have visited get a ring in the colour of your tier there, and a small green check if you already visited today. The card repeats your tier and days and reminds you how a visit counts. After you finish a visit in flight the ring updates without a reload.
None of this changes which airport pages search engines see. That still depends on caught flights and on how often our receivers hear the airport, and pilot names are kept out of the structured data we publish.
Next we'll add a list of your airports to your profile and a page with every airport you have visited.