Live Flight Tracking

I just noticed the new mobile site on the Iphone. Pretty cool, similar to an actual app. Infact it doesnt crash like the actual iphone app. I really like the new mobile site!!

Although the maps on the new mobile site dont work.

I love FA, but there is a reason why I preferred the mobile site over the app. I'm on a Droid but its essentially the same thing. The new mobile site is not as simple to use as before and it's actually quite frustrating, but hopefully I'll get used to it.

If the maps worked on the mobile site, I would use it over the actual app.

Thanks for reporting this; the maps should work now. Reload the page and give it another try.

It's still inconvenient. I have a FlightAware KOMA bookmark on my phone and it used to be so easy to just hit that and see everything, map, arrivals, departures, en route, and scheduled departures, all in a matter of seconds. Please keep the app the way it is and the mobile browser version the way it used to be. I can't use any of the features like track by route, track by flight number, etc., either.

I think the new mobile site is terrible. It used to be so easy to look down the list of arriving flights, ETAs, and aircraft types. Now, we barely get any info, and unless I'm seeing things wrong, I only get one page of inbound flights, even if plenty more are scheduled. PLEASE, revert or at least provide functionality to be able to view the old mobile site, or the desktop version on mobile devices.

Thanks for invading my phone. Ask first, and allow me to opt out of your "improvements." You just went from good to klunky. Congratulations!

I'm not a fan. The new mobile page is is cluttered, hard to understand and the maps are useless. You have to click multiple times into new pages to get where you want. Simplicity is best, and thats what you had on the previous version of the mobile page.

I agree with a lot of the sentiment on this page. I would love the option to access the old mobile site, and if that's not an option, then to give us the option for access to the full-version website. With the new version, you lose the ability to take a quick at-a-glance view of an airport's activity.

tgpopel, you can access the full page from the new mobile page. Go to flightaware.com and there will be a link at the very bottom to access the full site. This is what I've been using since the change.

Thanks for that tip, A2EVOMR. They should put that link on all pages.

Ahh man, I loved the old mobile site, this update is not working for me at all. Previously it was one simple page to see all Arr/Dep/EnRoute/Sched. plus the traffic map! I never used the iphone app, as I was always looking for a quick overview of ALL events at a specific airport quickly. It was very handy to click the bookmark on my home screen corresponding to the airport I wanted to look at, then see what traffic has Arr/Dep/En Route/Sched., to decide what I did for lunch (boring or fun-filled!!).

Now to get the same information, I have to click 5 times once the page loads to see the same information that previously only had to scroll through the page.

Sorry for the neg. feedback on this, just my opinion as a user.

Spinner, trying to figure out where to go for lunch now...

I am VERY disappointed with this move to remove full page functionality from the mobile devices, and substitute it with .... this. I don't know how to call it. Why, why oh why you guys did it? Its horrible. Its useless.
Move like that killed Flytecomm. They joined forces with Hellokitty aka Helloflight and went to this dead end road.
Now when I check flightaware on my iphone I want to cry. Seriously, why would you do something like that to thousands of people who ventures every day to flightaware?

Right now I can't check more than 15 flights en-route. And whats the point of showing this flashy airline logo? Who cares about it?

Please, I beg you. Stop this madness. This is so bad. Right now flight information supplied by flightaware is on the same level as information that typical user would find on airlines web pages. Why would they come to flightaware if they could do the same at ual.com or delta.com etc?

I started with fboweb.com, then they decited to 'improve' services, I switched to redone.com. After a while they also did something stupid. Flytecomm.com had the edge for flight tracking for general public, airline employees and aviation enthusiasts like myself. Then they decided to 'improve' their site merging with helloflight. I jumped the ship and found new home at flightaware. Now when I look at the flights on my mobile devices I'm sick. Its deja vu all over again. Please abandon this thinking 'outside the box' and stick what you did best. Fast, easy and simple flight tracking. PLEASE GO BACK!
What you are doing right now is exact carbon copy of flytecomm. Its useless, unless your flight arrives within couple of hours.
I don't know what else to say. I can only tell you that you will lose A LOT of people with this new format.

Disappointed

While FlightAware has gotten a lot of good features, there are also features that have been "improved." Why? Features like the average air fare, moving the aircraft type halfway down the box, etc., etc. Maybe they are good for improving their programming skills but it is lousy from the point of view of the person who uses the service.

I love complaints about something that is free....

Because its free, it doesn't mean that can be bad. Did you ever hear this? If it ain't broken, don't fix it?

While it is free to most users, FlightAware does make money with the program through advertising. If too many people stop using it because of "improvements" then the advertising revenue will go down.

What about the users that do pay for the service? Should they be subjected to improvements to things that ain't broke?

Thanks for the feedback - we appreciate it and we're sorry to hear you're disappointed with the new interface.

You can always access the the desktop site from the link at the bottom of flightaware.com (soon to be on the bottom of all mobile pages).

Can you explain a bit more about your use case where you're trying to find en route flights hours in advance at busy airports? Are you a pilot, passenger, airport operator/FBO, airline employee, enthusiast, or another relationship to the flight operations?

I am aviation photographer, enthusiast, working in aviation field. I can deal with blocked flights (I get that info from airport ops if something special is coming).

Knowing information about aircraft arriving in advance is important for all photographers. You can check all enroute flights and you can plan your day, figure out location based on time, sun position. It gives enough time to check upcoming weather condition etc.
Let say, when I'm out spotting with guys we check flightaware on our phones every 3-5 minutes. Checking flights enroute and scheduled departures.
So when I'm out spotting, I check flight aware constantly during my 4-6 hours at the airport. Flightaware is the primary tool at our local spotting group (and we have 200+ active members).
For example today. South African brought ZS-SXD in London 2012 Olympics colors. At 4pm I couldn't check departure time because it was showing only handful of flights. Most of them before 4:30pm departure time. If I couldn't do it on flightaware, I would have gone to saa.com and check the departure time on their web page.

We've been discussing internally new flightaware transformation, and we all agreed that this wont work.
All other sites, like flightstats, flightarrivlas or any other generic site can provide more flight data then flightaware can. Is that really what you want? Its easier to collect more arrival / departure data from these sites. Even flytecomm (helloflight) provides more information.

I was talking today to guys from nycaviation. They agreed that what flightaware is doing is not the proper step. I will leave it at that.

To the person who said "I love complaints about something that is free...."
rw812 explained to you in detail how does it work. If the site wont generate lots of traffic their advertisement earning will shrink.
Also, I can tell that you are visiting flightaware once a week to track a flight. Otherwise you would noticed significant difference.
At last, why flightaware provides this flight tracking for free?
I can tell you why. To generate traffic to the site, so they can generate revenue from adds. They are not charity organization. They make money on this site.
So why not make most out of it?

Going back to flightaware.com viewing as full page. Its not the same. Before when I clicked on En-Route or Departures my page adjusted automatically. Now I have to resize it and move it. And thats for every page (when I click NEXT).

Thats all I had to say in this subject.

Thanks

This thread parallels one on the other board:
general/new-moblie-site-on-the-iphone-t15002.html

Sorry, but I also *HATE* the new mobile site, and I know plenty more people that do, too. The old mobile site was close to perfect. I too am a plane spotter/aviation photographer. There are MANY of us that use FlightAware for this purpose, and the new mobile site makes it all but impossible for that purpose now. Specifically, my issues with the new UI:

1) Lists are limited to one page...so for En Route flights, you can only see about 30 minutes in advance for larger airports. Arrivals are limited to one small page, so in the case of plane spotters, if you think you might have missed a certain plane while eating lunch, you might not even be able to tell if it came in or not.
2) It makes it very hard to look down the list and easily look at the data...with the old UI, you could see many flights, their ETAs, aircraft type, and more, all at once. Now, you get 2, maybe 3 flights listed on one screen, then have to scroll down? Yuck. I understand it's the jQuery Mobile-type look, but a tabular format is perfect for FlightAware, not a UI that shows two flights per page. Then, the aircraft type is mashed in, next to the flight number? Bleah.
3) One of features I used a lot was the history of a certain flight. You could be on the flight's page, and just look down the list to see what days it came in, what times they came in, etc. Now, you have to go to the flight's page, hit the "Track More" button, and then you see the listing, which, again, isn't friendly to look through at all.

As for complaining about a free thing, I'm with TipekUsair. I've told countless people about FlightAware, and I use it religiously. All that translates to page views and click throughs, sign ups for the paid services, etc., and that's a good thing. There's no way I'm referring people to FlightAware with the monstrosity that is the new mobile site. It now looks like every other flight tracking app/site out there. FlightAware always differentiated itself in my mind, because it was focused on the data, and not cutesy graphics. I'm guessing a decision was made to make the UI friendlier to the general public, but I think you'll soon find that the general public has dozens of choices that are clones of the current mobile site, and alienating avgeeks will be a far greater loss than any new users gained.

Yes, I understand I can revert to the full desktop version, but I have to re-click on the link every time my session ends(?), and my mobile browser doesn't support vector rendering, so I get errors on every page. Not fun. PLEASE, consider reverting back to the old UI for the mobile site, or at least think of some ways to make the data more presentable to the majority of people who actually use the site currently. Or have two mobile versions - one for avgeeks, and one for people going to the airport to pick up mom (because I can't really see who else the new site would target). I'm sure there are some people who enjoy the new look and feel and the pretty graphics, but I honestly don't think those are users who spend much time at all on the site.

I agree with everyone else. This "better" mobile site is not good at all!
I am a heavy planespotter and enthusiast. I used flightaware religiously because it was the best flight tracker out there because you can view flights so far in advance. I use the app for nearby and it's great but I went to the mobile site for everything else and loved it and now it's not good. I know it is a free service and it was great but since the new site I have missed much awesome planes!
DISSAPOINTED!

I agree with everyone this new Mobile site SUCKS!!
I am very dissapointed! Someone should get a petition going around or boycott or something to get the old one back. PLEASE FLIGHTAWARE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I am so annoyed by heavy-handedness of the mobile site.

What was once visible on one page must now be viewed on four separate pages.

I have all sorts of bookmarks (dozens) for certain airports & aircraft types that no longer work because the system is forcing everything over to the mobile format.

The link to navigate back to the main site is only available on one page (which is not that easy to find, at first).

Then, when I do navigate back to the main site - my book marks are ignored and I'm taken to FA's front page and must enter everything manually.

After using the mobile site again today, I have decided that it's not really worth it. I have an HTC Inspire.

What would be good is:
1st page
Select option to view: Airport, Flight, (whatever else - these are the only two things I use)

Airport Page
Flight ID, Aircraft Type, Departure information, Destination (optionally, type of arrival at destination)

The screen for this and other pages should be white background with black text. Trying to read the aircraft information (blue text) on a black background is heard. Blue text on black is one the worse combinations possible.

[u]Flight Page[/url]
Aircraft ID
(next line): Aircraft, departure point and time, destination and arrival time. This is followed by a link to give the full flight routing