I wonder if Herpa will like this or not!
Even if Herpa knows it seems they don't care to what happens around them, like a tank running on the desert! And 1:500 scale world really is (was) a desert, where a leading but only manufacturer for too many years decided what to produce and what not, strong and sure of the group of feeder main airlines. To reproduce competition like that of the mid 2000 it will take many years, but Aether started with great news and airlines/liveries Herpa has forgotten (licenses, etc.). Korean Air, Eva Air, JAL and ANA are great goals (even if in 1:500 there are enough ANA and JAL models, maybe JAL B787-8/9 is missing), Norse B787-9 is a real beauty, only China Airlines is missing among Herpa "forbidden" far east airlines. Finnair A330-300 REGULAR LIVERY is something asked to herpa since about 10 years, but the German manufacturer continued to produce special liveris (like Sky500). Brussels Airlines A330-300 new livery is another guest star and we all know Herpa seems not to have license to produce Brussels Airlines models, even being part of Lufthansa Group (like Austrian Airlines and the impossible mission to have an A320neo in our hands!).
If really in 2026 we will see widebodies of Volotea, Jet2holidays, Neos, Sky Express, AeroItalia, Enter Air, Ryanair + Buzz + Malta Air, Sunclass, JetTime, eaasyjet, Air Arabia, Air Cairo, Nouvelair, Southwest, LATAM, Avianca then something will really change! If you look at European airspace on Flightradar24 including part of Turkey and North Africa, excluding legacy airlines (which also operate charter/leisure flights to holiday destinations since some years!) you will only see Jet2holidays, Jet2.com, Eurowings, Discover, TUIfly Group, Sky Express, airlines from Scandinavia (SAS, Norwegian, DAT, Sunclass, JetTime), easyjet, Ryanair, neos, Wizz Air, Vueling. Spain, Greece, Italy, North Africa (Tunisie, Maroc, Algerie, Egypt), France, Portugal, England are countries full of tourists and full of holiday destinations, and this market is represented by many airlines Herpa seems not to consider or not able to produce.
Then: Southwest Airlines alone has
810 airplanes in fleet, LATAM Airlines Group
357, Avianca
126...how is it possible not having "space" in 1:500 scale???
P.S. What happened to your 1:500 collection?