The best apps to log your flights after App in the Air

What happened to App in the Air

App in the Air was removed from the app stores on 19 September 2024. Its servers, and with them the option to export your data, stopped on 19 October 2024. If you exported your history before then, keep that file: several of the apps below can read it. If you did not, the data is gone.

Some people kept screenshots of their statistics instead, which is better than nothing when you are rebuilding totals by hand.

That shutdown is a good argument for a log you can get your flights out of, or one that keeps a copy on your own device. Worth weighing before you spend years filling in another.

Two kinds of flight log

Most logs are records you add to. You type in a flight number and date, or import a history, and the app looks up the route and distance. That works for flights from years ago and for trips where you never opened an app.

The other kind records the flight as it happens, from GPS on your phone. You get the distance actually flown, the real altitude and the countries crossed, not the scheduled route. The catch is that it only knows about flights you tracked.

Many people end up using both. Before choosing, gather what you already have: exported files from old apps, booking emails and airline account histories all help to rebuild a list of past flights that you can add to a manual log.

What to look for in a flight log

Getting your data out. After App in the Air, this is the first question to ask. A log that exports, or one that can be imported elsewhere, is safer over many years than one that cannot.

Where it runs. If you might switch between iPhone and Android, an iOS-only log is a risk. A web log works on anything with a browser.

What it counts. Some logs work from scheduled routes and add up the great-circle distance between airports. A GPS log records the distance actually flown, which is usually longer because real routes bend around weather and airspace.

Whether it needs an account. A log stored on the phone works without signing up, but it is only as safe as the phone unless there is a backup.

The statistics you care about. Distance, countries, airports, time in the air and routes are common. Check the log counts the things you will actually look at in five years.

The options compared

Every app here keeps a list of flights and draws them on a map. The differences are where the data comes from, whether you can bring old flights in, and what you pay for.

Flighty Passport, myFlightradar24 and OpenFlights

Flighty Passport builds a flight map, log and statistics from the flights you follow in Flighty. It imports from myFlightradar24, OpenFlights, App in the Air, JetLovers, FlightMemory and Logmyflight, which makes it the easiest way to rescue an old history. The past year is free; older history needs Flighty Pro. It is iOS only, and Flighty’s waitlist page says there are no immediate plans for Android.

Flighty’s flight data comes from airline and air traffic control sources rather than your phone’s GPS, so the log reflects the flights as reported, and it works best if you add a flight before you fly.

myFlightradar24 is the log attached to Flightradar24. You add flights and it keeps statistics on them. If you already use Flightradar24 on the ground, it is the obvious place to keep a record.

OpenFlights is a free, open-source website for logging and mapping flights. It is plain to look at and not tied to any phone platform, and because it is open source it is a reasonable choice if the App in the Air shutdown has made you wary of losing a history again.

Because it runs in a browser, it is easiest to update from a laptop after a trip rather than at the gate.

TripIt is an organiser, not a log

TripIt reads your booking confirmations and builds an itinerary. TripIt Pro adds alerts and seat tracking. It is very good at the week before a trip and during it.

It is not really a flight log. It keeps past trips, but it has no in-flight GPS and is not built around lifetime statistics or a map of where you have flown. Many people run it alongside one of the logs above.

If your old history lives mostly in booking emails, TripIt’s past trips can still be a useful source when you rebuild a log elsewhere.

SkyDot records the flight as you fly it

SkyDot takes the second approach. You start tracking when you board, and it follows the flight on your phone’s GPS in Airplane Mode. When it detects the landing it saves the flight automatically with the date, origin and destination, the distance actually flown, duration, maximum altitude, top speed and the countries you crossed.

Because it records from GPS, it knows things a manual log cannot, such as the countries you flew over rather than only the ones you landed in.

Totals add up flights, countries, airports, distance and time in the air, and a world map fills in countries as you fly over them. The log lives on your phone with no account needed; Premium users who sign in get cloud backup. The free tier keeps five flights unlocked, with a few more available through rewarded ads.

It also turns the log into something to share. A Year in Flights card shows your latest year on a world map with flights, distance, time in the air, countries, top route and longest flight, and each flight can be shared as an image.

Be clear about the limits. SkyDot cannot import flights from App in the Air or anywhere else, has no export, and you cannot add or edit a flight by hand. If you have a long history to bring over, use Flighty Passport or OpenFlights for that, and SkyDot for flights from here on.