@Averlyn, I agree with you that the current flight scheduler is a very basic tool. I guess the developers will look into it at a later stage again.
I like your idea as in the real world night time departures would be limited to certain long-haul routes and a 3AM departure most likely is only done by the likes of TUIfly, Thomas Cook Airlines and so on to Mallorca or Sharm-el-Sheikh. So yes, we definitely need some time restrictions by the airlines. It could also add an economic level to it. Normally slots at prime-time (e.g. 7-8 AM in the morning) are more sought after and an airline could be willing to pay more for this slot than for a 5 AM departure. (and before someone comes and says that slots are assigned to airlines and not the other way around, I know that. But for the sake of simplicity and “fun” in the game, it is better to let airlines pay an incentive to the airport for better slots).
While playing I figured out one more “glitch”. When using the auto-scheduler I cannot tell the system to only use airlines from the ACEOMM mod. It will automatically assign default airlines to my medium-stands. But as there are currently not enough small-aircraft size real-life airlines in the game, I also cannot block the default airlines. In addition, I would like to favour certain airlines over others, but still have a wide mix of airlines available for a certain “feel” of variety. So the auto-scheduler in my opinion should have a menu where you can perform certain settings after which the auto-scheduler works. This could also be something a CEO has to buy via the Procurement Tab!
And then there is one major feature where I would love to see some development for - Swapping Aircraft Stands. Right now you assign a flight (e.g. GW123) to a certain stand at a certain time. Now, if the previous flight assigned to this stand is delayed and is still occupying this stand, GW123 cannot land and has to wait until the stand is finally free. In the real world the OCC (Operations Control Center) of an airport would allocate another free stand to GW123 and swap it with another flight that may arrive 30 minutes later.
I can imagine that this is probably a lot of code that needs to be written by the developers, but it would add a tremendous amount of realism into the game. Again, this could be something that a CEO would have to purchase via the Procurement Tab and that would probably also require additional software (also via Procurement), some additional staff for the OCC and a seperate building for the OCC. But it would be a very nice feature. Especially once an airports grows over a certain size.
In addition the OCC could be used as a base for some other nice features (e.g. improved ground operations, more details/reports on aircraft turnarounds, more options to expedite aircraft turnarounds, etc.)