Boeing-owned ForeFlight announced on Wednesday that it has acquired flight debriefing software provider CloudAhoy. CloudAhoy’s software products are designed to record flights and provide post-flight debriefing, analytics and flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) across general, business and military aviation segments. Citing “customer desire for more integrated digital solutions,” ForeFlight stated that the acquisition will strengthen its data analytics tools and services.
“CloudAhoy’s advanced capabilities and products will complement and integrate nicely into our existing digital portfolio, and we are excited for CloudAhoy and its employees to join our team,” said ForeFlight CEO Tim Schuetze. “Recording and debriefing flights has been a staple of ForeFlight for years, and CloudAhoy’s software will enable even deeper post-flight analysis of every flight.”
As previously reported by AVweb, ForeFlight was purchased by Boeing in 2019 and has become part of the company’s digital solutions arm. Boeing and ForeFlight noted that the CloudAhoy acquisition is “an example of Boeing’s larger strategy to continue building capabilities that will support customer needs today and into the future.” The exact terms of the transaction have not been made public.
Cool. Foreflight is an excellent product. Some add on bells and whistles like this are superfluous but can be fun.
I tend to agree. I love ForeFlight and it is a powerful tool when planning and when flying. Unfortunately, the subscription model is tilted heavily towards the jet pilots, or towards forcing everyone to to the top tier. I’d like to have access to the 3D visualization features for planning flights to unfamiliar airports sometimes, for instance. But, I don’t need all the other features that cater to the turbine crowd and I certainly don’t want to pay for all of those features to get the one or two that I would like to use occasionally. So, while this acquisition may bring more cool, integrated features, they will probably be reserved for the top tier. Either that, or they plan on bringing out a completely new tier aimed towards CFIs. Basically, I don’t have a lot of hope that it will make it down to me in the “cheap seats”.
And it’s coming soon… when you update to our new super deluxe uber premium version for $350 annual subscription.
Exactly
Just wait, we will be paying for this acquisition, premiums going up!!!
Again, exactly.
Sad day for those of us on the lower end of the financial spectrum of aviation. We can all see where this is headed…
When Boeing purchased ForeFlight I knew the subscription fees would go up.
I had to go back to the Basic subscription from Pro. They added too much stuff and cost I didn’t need or use.
So I guess this means us non-ForeFlight users are going to soon lose access to this app. And as others have commented, I bet this won’t be available in the Basic subscription.
Me too.
My experience with them went south right at the beginning. They only used Apple and Mac platforms. I asked them when they were going to include Windows and Android. Was told then that they were working on it. 10 + years later, another forum meeting. I asked them again the same questions. This time I was told that nope. Android and Windows based programs were not feasible, and off the table. Sorry. So is my interest in you or your items. I was flying before foreflight, and will fly afterwards without you.
I had a similar experience. Back when AOPA used to hold their “Summits” (prior to their wholly-underwhelming “Fly-Ins”), I got to sit at a table with one of the main guys at ForeFlight and asked them about Android and Windows, and his response to me was basically “Never. We’re Apple-only”. It was at that point that I gave a hard pass on ForeFlight.
Well, looks like there goes one more option to post true reviews.
Shamefully, Foreflight either censors negative reviews itself, or allows FBO’s to buy them so as to keep only nice reviews.
Now another option is gone. I think that Foreflight is becoming “too big to fail” which I consider a strategic threat.
Last month I had a terrible experience in Khoury Aviation in KGSO, posted a purely factual review, and it was never published. I wonder if they will advertise that you can buy back a negative review…
Pre-ForeFlight I used the AirNav reviews. I had the same experience posting a bad FBO review on ForeFlight. Part of my flight planning now is to review the FBO’s on AirNav as well as fuel prices. I’ve had surprises on fuel prices posted on ForeFlight that turned out to be fiction.
Foreflight is an excellent product and as such is worth good money. I can’t imagine going back to the old way of flight planning. FF was instrumental in my IFR and Commercial ratings, and I use it often for planning and research.
With that said I wish it was ala carte. I also have to pay for many features I don’t need to get the ones I do need/want but that’s the way it is. They are entitled to charge top dollar for a top shelf product.
Perhaps this will drive more competition and then prices will drop and that’s great too.
There already is good competition to ForeFlight, but hardly anyone talks about those options. Garmin Pilot, FltPlan Go (free), and FlyQ EFB are some of the big ones. But FF must be paying the aviation magazines big money to promote their product because it’s very rare to find them mentioning any EFB app other than FF.
In my opinion the value that is brought to the table by all the convenient planning and in-flight features that EFBs like ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot etc. far outweighs the annual costs of what in this day and age is the equivalent of just an hour or two of renting a 172. Software development is expensive, especially when it comes with the responsibility of providing pilots with amazing, reliable tools that make every flight so much less stressful than just a decade ago.
Nice! I chatted with the owner/developer about some bug fixes and improvements early on, real nice guy, sounded like it’s a small operation of just a couple people.
Hope he/they made a boat of money.