The highlights — what's changed recently in What's Above Me? and Flight Board. Newest first.
9 August
Flight Board: live map links for in-air flights, plus accuracy fixes
- On the Flight Board, the flight number for any tracked flight that's currently in the air is now a link — tap it to jump straight to that aircraft on the live map.
- Renamed the "Gate" column to "Arr Gate" for clarity.
- Fixed a couple of issues where a tracked flight's status and gate could get stuck and stop updating.
- Fixed an occasional wrong flight number shown for some easyJet and Ryanair flights.
- Flight Board gate accuracy: when a more reliable source has the gate, it's now trusted over a slower-updating one, checked in the run-up to departure.
- About to Fly: the same gate-accuracy improvement now applies here too — a more reliable source can correct an already-shown gate, not just fill in a missing one.
7 August
About to Fly: better gate accuracy, inbound flight number, notification fixes
- About to Fly now checks an additional data source for departure and arrival gate information whenever it isn't already known from our main sources — so you're more likely to see the real gate sooner, especially in the last couple of hours before a flight.
- When it's known, About to Fly now also shows the inbound flight number — the flight your aircraft is arriving on before it turns around to operate your flight.
- Fixed a couple of issues where About to Fly could send a duplicate or inaccurate notification about a time or delay change that hadn't actually happened.
5 August
Flight numbers now shown, plus a couple of new sign-up questions
- When it's known, the flight number now appears on the aircraft detail card, and in the aircraft list rows — not just the registration.
- New accounts are now asked for a first name, last name, and country when signing up. If you signed up before this and haven't been asked yet, you'll be asked the next time you sign in.
4 August
Fixed a rare "stuck checking subscription" screen
- On a small number of networks, the sign-in screen could get stuck on "Checking your subscription…" indefinitely after signing in. If that happens now, you'll be taken to the subscribe screen after a short wait instead of being left stuck.
- Added a new live-tracking data source that works alongside our existing feeds, giving better coverage over water and for aircraft still on the runway that haven't quite lifted off yet — for a more complete, holistic picture of what's flying above you.
3 August
Airport code search issue, now fixed
- For a short time this afternoon, searching for a nearby airport by its 3-letter code may not have confirmed correctly. This was unfortunately due to one of our service providers not providing a service. We've now written around this, and apologise for any inconvenience caused.
31 July
Route search gets faster, wider, and works on Manchester/Heathrow
- Flight Board's "search by route" now lets you pick Yesterday, Today, or Tomorrow instead of only ever searching around right now.
- The airline list for route search grew from 8 to 39 airlines, including Virgin Atlantic.
- Route search results now show both the departure and arrival time for each option, not just departure.
- Fixed route searches failing for some international airports (e.g. Manchester, Heathrow) by switching to a more reliable live data source for same-day searches.
- Flight Board's table is now readable on an iPhone — each tracked flight shows as its own card instead of a wide table that ran off the edge of the screen.
- Added a Contact Support option to the ☰ menu — opens a pre-filled email straight to our support address.
- Push notifications arrived — turn them on from "🔔 Notifications" in the ☰ menu and get a real notification (not just an in-app sound) the moment a flight lands, in two ways: every flight you're tracking on Flight Board, and whichever aircraft you've selected on the map and tapped "Track Landing" on. Both work even with the app closed. On iPhone/iPad, notifications only work once you've added What's Above Me? to your Home Screen (Safari → Share → "Add to Home Screen") and opened it from that icon — turning the toggle on from inside a regular Safari tab won't work, and the app will tell you so if you try. See the FAQ for the full rundown.
- New "🛫 A2F (About to Fly)" page, in the ☰ menu next to Flight Board — type in any flight number (IATA like "FR7482" or ICAO like "RYR69CY") and see everything known about it in one place: departure and arrival terminal, gate, delay, and scheduled/estimated/actual times. No need to have the aircraft on the map or on Flight Board first — it's a one-off lookup for any flight, available to every subscriber.
- Standardized every "close" button across the app (the aircraft detail card's included) to match the same look, and expanded the FAQ with a full explanation of how the two kinds of notifications work.
30 July
Flight Board launches, plus a new Live Gate Board
- Brand-new Flight Board page (Premium): track a handful of flights — your own crew's, or anyone's you want to keep an eye on — and see at a glance who's landed.
- Flight Board can now find a flight for you by route (pick an airline plus departure/arrival airport) if you don't know the exact flight number.
- New Live Gate Board (Premium): a live arrival/departure board lookup for any airport and airline, reworked over several passes for readability on an iPhone.
- The header was tidied into a single "☰" menu, and search radius became a dropdown (with a custom option) instead of a fixed list.
- Fixed a couple of bugs where a "Find flight" result or a selected aircraft's detail card would flicker and disappear a few seconds after appearing.
29 July
Sign-in page redesign, FAQ, Terms & Conditions
- You can now search by airline code (e.g. "BA", "VS", "U2") to list every one of that airline's aircraft currently in view.
- Scheduled departure/arrival times are now shown alongside the calculated arrival estimate.
- The sign-in screen was redesigned as a proper marketing page, with a real product screenshot, pricing, Terms & Conditions, and an FAQ — all reachable from the welcome page and the in-app menu.
- Added a browser tab icon and an iPhone Home Screen icon.
28 July
Next Flight lookup, cloud cover, and pilot-tested landing details
- Next Flight lookup launched (Premium) — after landing, see the likely gate/terminal for your next scheduled flight.
- Added a live cloud cover overlay on the map.
- Added owner/operator lookup for general aviation aircraft, plus runway, elevation, and timezone info for departure/arrival airports.
- Landing-stage detail (undercarriage, approach) tuned against real pilot feedback.
- Cleaned up aircraft-type clutter (service vehicles no longer shown) and removed technical "ADS-B" jargon from the aircraft detail view.
27 July
Accounts and subscriptions
- What's Above Me? became a real subscription product: sign in with Google or email/password, manage your subscription from the header, and sign out whenever you like.
- Live gate/terminal data added for tracked aircraft.
- Selected aircraft on the map now show in a distinct purple icon.
26 July
Getting the basics right on a phone
- Reworked the layout to be usable on a small iPhone screen.
- Added a downloadable debug log, useful for tracking down odd behaviour.
- Added a clear warning before any lookup that uses up a limited paid data credit.