Originally Posted by
MagnumPI
I have used OzRunways, AvPlan, and Foreflight. The latter is now my preferred EFB. Foreflight was actually one of the oldest iPad apps ever, actually launching as an app before the iPad was created.
If you've used both Foreflight and OzRunways extensively it's very apparent that Foreflight has features that OzRunways would likely never have had as the market here is just too small.
As an example, Foreflight has two way flight plan sync with the later generation Garmin avionics, as well as displaying ADSB-IN traffic from Garmin avionics on the EFB. That's a massive deal. You can also file flight plans directly to Airservices without opening NAIPs.
I see this acquisition as a positive thing as it allows the hard working team at OzRunways to experience a liquidity event, and Foreflight will take some of the sorta unique Australian things of OzRunways and incorporate the features into Foreflight.
Ive also used FF in the past (and Garmin pilot - useless) but the only thing that differentiated it was the Garmin flight plan sync. Thats handy - but by no means a game changer - even for moderately long IFR routes. Id much prefer to have webcams than wireless flight plan uploads.
So I discussed this directly with OZR yesterday to see if that functionality would make its way to OZR. The short answer is no, and the current plan is for them to remain operating as they are, as a sub of FF/BA. OZR app remains in operation as is.
So don't expect FF or OZR to change here (at least in the near term.)
I agree that its a great result for the OZR team.
I don't think FF bought them with any goal to introduce FF to Aus, I think they just looked at a complementary business with prob 5mm of revenue and 22k+ users, with a lot of scope for synergies aka cost out.