Thanks Frenchie88.
I will do that, but only as a last resort. 'Touch Wood' but other than this 'unusual behaviour' of AICarriers, about everything else with my present FSX installation works like a charm.
I am a bit chary of disturbing anything with the present setup, unless absolutely necessary.
You may be right though, since I have my Java installation setup to 'auto update' itself, that might be the only thing that could have changed.
There are many specialists on this forum (Virtuali, Orion, Sludge, FSXNP, Nick, Razgriz and so on and so on). I am sure, someone out there HAS a positive solution to this. If nothing works, maybe I will go this way.
Thanks anyways.
Mickey