Mobiata has announced that it is shutting down its popular FlightTrack 5 and FlightBoard apps, effective Mar. 1, 2017. Although the company admits that it hasn’t provided many updates to the two apps in recent months, FlightTrack was one of the first and best flight tracking apps on the App Store, and quickly became a mainstay for iPhone travellers. Mobiata was acquired by Expedia in 2010, and although it continued to run largely as an independent unit in developing its FlightTrack and FlightBoard apps over the past six years, a recent “critical assessment” by the larger parent company regarding the demand for travel app products suggests that a decision was made to focus Mobiata’s resources on implementing the technology in FlightTrack and FlightBoard into the main Expedia app in order to provide a “one-stop shopping” travel app solution.
Mobiata notes that the FlightTrack 5 and FlightBoard apps have already been removed from the App Store as of Feb. 16, and that it plans to turn off all supporting servers on Mar. 1, at which point the apps will no longer receive flight updates or flight status notifications. Until Mar. 21, users who had purchased either of Mobiata’s apps after Aug. 1, 2016 can contact Mobiata for a $10 iTunes App Store voucher for each of the apps that they purchased.