GeekWire app of the week: FlightTrack Free

FlightTrack Free lets users see where a flight is on its route to its destination. (Image courtesy iTunes)

Timed flight departures and arrivals aren’t a perfect science. Delays can be minutes, hours, or even days.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could get an accurate picture of a flight’s progress just by clicking into your smartphone?

This week’s ‘app of the week’ lets you do just that. You can track a flight’s arrival time as well as see where the plane currently is on a map of its route using the new FlightTrack Free app..

“You can actually track the precise location of a flight as it’s going from one place of the world to another,” says GeekWire’s Todd Bishop.

The app service previously was available only for a fee, but Bishop says just last week the developers released a free version for Android and iPhone users.

The app updates users with changes to flight arrival time, lists the arrival terminal and gate, and also shows where passengers will be picking up their bags.

“If you’re waiting for somebody to come into town or you’re waiting for a flight to come into an airport when you’re laying over, you can actually just see precisely where the flight is,” says Bishop. “It gives you a sense of things better than the gate agents a lot of times.”

The app tracks flights to and from 16,000 airports and 1,400 airlines worldwide.

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By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor