We haven’t got this emotional about flight tracking apps since FlightRadar24 came along, but Flighty has been a bit of a revelation. It’s sleek, smart, and genuinely useful – the kind of travel tool that quietly becomes essential. After using it across dozens of trips, we realised it deserved more than just a passing mention. So here it is: our full Flighty App Review.
What is Flighty App?
Flighty App is built for regular air travellers who want a smarter way to stay on top of their travel plans. It works as a sleek, native iOS flight tracker that pulls in live operational data from FAA, Eurocontrol, and airport feeds. The result? Real-time updates on everything from delays to gate changes, inbound aircraft, and even air traffic control hold-ups. It’s far more consistent and reliable than the hit-and-miss notifications from airline apps, and everything is presented in one intuitive interface.
Flighty is developed by an independent software company based in Austin, Texas. The app was created by Ryan Jones, a former Apple employee, alongside a small, globally distributed team of aviation enthusiasts, developers, and designers. With contributors working remotely from cities like Austin, Barcelona, and Oslo, the team’s mission is to build the most reliable, beautifully crafted flight tracker for Apple users – without the ads, clutter, or half-baked features that plague most travel apps. It’s a lean operation, but one that punches well above its weight.
Who is Flighty App ideal for?
Flighty is designed for frequent flyers, obsessive planners, and those of us juggling travel across multiple inboxes. It’s ideal if you’ve got work trips booked via a corporate tool, personal holidays scattered across Gmail, and zero patience for flicking between five different apps. It also appeals to anyone who likes tracking their flying habits – from counting sectors and aircraft types to logging destinations and historical delay data. And if you’re the sort who checks where your inbound plane is before leaving home? This app has your name written all over it.
Best features
After connecting my email accounts, I forwarded booking confirmations directly to Flighty’s unique tracking inbox. Within moments, flights were added to my trip list – no copying and pasting required. It handled work and personal bookings without issue, and having everything in one place finally stopped me missing calendar invites or check-in reminders.
Even better, it let me import past flights. I added itineraries from more than ten years ago, and Flighty recognised the majority without complaint. It tracked miles flown, routes taken, and the total number of sectors – perfect if you’ve got a soft spot for aviation stats. For the few it couldn’t automatically import, the system’s flexibility meant I was able to manually add them.
Calendar sync also worked a treat. It pushed flights into my iPhone calendar, complete with timings and booking references. On the run-up to each departure, Flighty showed countdowns on my Lock Screen, sent check-in nudges, and notified me when the inbound aircraft departed.
Aircraft swaps triggered an alert too – a handy heads-up to double-check my seat hadn’t changed.
When delays cropped up, Flighty was specific – down to the minute. I used this more than once when I needed to know if I had time to grab food or would be sprinting to a gate. It even logged the exact delay after landing, which helped when I submitted an EC261 compensation claim.
I also appreciated the option to share flights with friends or family, so they could follow along or browse my past travel maps.
Improvements
While most things worked smoothly, there were a few areas that could use polish. When an import failed, the response email didn’t explain what had gone wrong. If I sent multiple booking emails, I couldn’t tell which one failed – and there was no copy of the original message included. It especially disliked Malaysia Airlines booking confirmation emails!
The countdown widget on the Lock Screen also misbehaved while I was in Central Europe – it showed 2:59h remaining even when my flight was departing in two. Not a dealbreaker, but odd.
Things got slightly noisy with connecting itineraries. Inbound aircraft alerts weren’t always clear about which sector they referred to, and I found myself digging around for context. It was also frustrating that flights couldn’t be edited – if one was saved with the wrong date, I had to delete and re-add it manually.
Flighty showed airport transit details, I didn’t find it reliable just yet. In Brussels, it claimed no terminal change was needed, but I ended up hustling from one end of the airport to the other. Not the app’s fault entirely, but something to be wary of.
Finally, while our Flighty App review focuses on the iOS version, we hope that an Android version will be developed in the future to make this excellent flight tracking tool accessible to a broader audience. It’s good to see there is an Android waitlist, which they’re presumably using to gauge demand.
What does it cost?
At the time of writing, Flighty offered both free and paid tiers:
Free version
Basic flight tracking, minimal notifications, and historical logs. No live inbound tracking or delay alerts.
Flighty Pro
- £3.99 per month
- £39.99 per year
- £199.99 for lifetime access
Flighty Pro unlocked everything – real-time notifications, delay insights, calendar sync, TripIt import, and historical flight data. They occasionally ran promos, especially around Black Friday or via the App Store, so it was worth checking before subscribing.
BG1 Verdict
The upshot of this Flighty App review is that we’ve found an absolute gem of an app for anyone who travels regularly and wants reliable, fuss-free updates. It’s fast, accurate, and beautifully designed – a rare combination. The lifetime option is great value if you’re in the air more than a few times a year, and even the annual plan feels like a solid investment. This is the app I didn’t know I needed – and now I wouldn’t travel without it.
If you travel for work, it’s also worth checking whether your company will reimburse the subscription. Some business travellers may be able to claim the app as a legitimate expense, especially since it genuinely boosts productivity on the move.
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