Flight Tracking Apps

I have long used Flightrack Pro, but it seems to have been reduced in quality by some recent updates (based on on-line reviews), and may no longer be supported in the format I presently have on my iPhone. Therefore I started a search for the perfect replacement APP for some upcoming trips. I think I found it.

MacWorld magazine recommended (Dec 2014) FlightView – which has 3 options, free with ads, $1.00 without ads, and pro for $4 showing the complete airport flight arrival and departure boards.  I chose the recommended $1 version.

I put in my two upcoming flights, and so far, I love it.  It has easy to use features, and of course does all the good stuff, keeping the departure times updated, and arrival times, and tracks the flights on maps if needed (suppose you are picking someone up and wanted to see that).

If you touch a flight you have entered, it will give you the 7 day weather forecast at that location, and I was impressed with how it did that, and the nice detailed information it gave.  Other options upon touching a flight will tell you the arrival gate (closer to the time you take off) and so forth. It is cosmetically good as well, pleasant to view.

There are other apps more specifically designed for those who mostly (or only) use them to pickup passengers at the airport.  Think Uber services, or taxi cabs, or family members who pickup other family members.  These apps use large fonts so they are easy to read while driving. And send email sounds and alerts for delayed flights.  The FlightView does something similar (if you allow it)… pushing information to your smart phone about flight delays or gate changes with sounds to alert you to the change. Soon the boards on the wall of airports will be obsolete?  Maybe.

I heard from a pilot that these flight apps are so accurate they use them in the cockpit, as sometimes they tell about delayed departure before the pilot’s more secure system of communication gets that information to the pilot.  One pilot in Albany NY (while we were delayed on the ramp) told the passengers to download the app and it would tell us when we were leaving and the new late arrival times so we could call our friends picking us up.  He assured us it would be accurate and he would not need to give us verbal announcements every 5 minutes.  Which were annoying. And that was 5 years ago.