FIR Chief Releases Statement on COVID-19 Impact

Nate Power, Winnipeg FIR Chief, issued the following statement this morning:

"Members of VATSIM, along with people across the world, have all felt the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. While this has been leading to more traffic for the Winnipeg FIR, unfortunately, it also means the budget of the FIR has substantially decreased in the past year.

Because of these circumstances, VATSIM and VATCAN have come to an agreement with the Winnipeg FIR to dissolve the Winnipeg FIR Staff team, replacing the team with an automated service called StaffBot.

This Discord-integrated service is built on AI, pulling from information provided by the individual staff members to reply to comments just like the previous staff team would have under normal circumstances.

While this isn't what we all hoped for or expected, we are confident this upgrade will benefit all members of Winnipeg for many years to come."

Also, happy April 1st.