FlightView, a free Internet service that provides air travelers with up-to-minute important information, has announced a special version for the Apple iPhone. It's especially designed and formatted for the iPhone's screen size. Also available soon is FlightTrack, a native iPhone application that accesses the same FAA data.

The FlightView site, connected directly to the FAA, makes traveling less stressful. Travelers can go to the Web site on their iPhone, type in their flight number and see exactly where it is, without the question of accuracy.

FlightView on iPhone in Safari

The site tracks more than 80,000 flights per day, so customers who have Web access with their iPhone, even if they're not able to immediately find a flight monitor in the Airport, or still on taxiing to the gate, can find out the status of a connecting flight.

"We're constantly finding innovative ways to help our customers get where they need to be," said Mike Benjamin, CEO of FlightView."The iPhone development is another big step in providing easy-to-use, easy-to-read information to travelers."

FlightTrack

In addition to FlightView optimized for the iPhone in Safari, Ben Kazez is separately developing an iPhone native companion application that works with the FlightView information. FlightTrack has the ability to:

• Track and store multiple flights
• View real-time flight tracker map with route and current position
• Observe current weather and its potential impact on flights
• See current aircraft speed and altitude
• Save last known flight information for later viewing while offline, even while sitting on an airplane
• Find baggage claim and gate info for many flights

FlightTrack

Mr. Kazez explained the design challenge in designing FlightTrack for the iPhone: "There are many options on how to search for flights on the iPhone since people like to search in different ways. FlightTrack enables users to search by airport names, city names, and airport codes -- while also providing an airline code or name -- or to search by airline and flight number.

"Presenting all these search options in an easy-to-use, easy-to-read way is something competitors have had trouble with, and FlightView has made a huge leap in this area."

One key feature that FlightTrack has, not matched by competitors, is the ability to watch a given flight move across a map in real-time.

Summary

Access to the FlightView Website with a PC, Mac or smartphone is free. The site automatically detects if access is via an iphone and formats the data accordingly. A FlightView representative told iPO that the business model is tied to the hope that as more and more travelers use the free service, Airports will opt to purchase and provide the service to all travelers.

FlightTrack will be available soon at the App Store soon for US$4.99.