Hello @ll,
yes the competition is like Mercedes vs BMW ;o)
but the main reason is, IVAO and VATSIM, both want to have the most members for online flying. And it is also a competition N. America vs Europe.
I've been a VATSIM member and there are a lot of pilots and controller in the United States. But thye system even the squawkbox 3.0 isn't close as stable as the IVAP system.
And you have often pc crashes with some servers.
One big point for IVAO is the high average controller availability for Europe, S. America, W.Asia and this in GND, TWR, APP, CTR Control.
Because of these reasons a lot of pilots changed from VATSIM to IVAO (also americans), but a lot of VATSIM users want to use the US-System and they want to stay familiar with it. Also a lot of americans think they have to speak european !!!! because they don't know that the aviation language is english (also european is not a language, but many don't know this), so they keep up the competition against IVAO and Europe
IVAO members: ca. 73K VATSIM: 45k average online time: pilots: close the same , Controller: 50 % more at IVAO
For Euroharmony Flights: if you want to fly real virtual online with full ATC on EHM Timetables Flight just join IVAO today !
:]
Bye Kendy
EHM-1555