Flight Tracking App Downloads Increase After Malaysia Airlines Accidents

Flight radar tracking apps have spiked in popularity since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in March, and the crashes of the airline's flight MH17 and Air Algerie flight AH5017 last month, with users wanting to track aircraft locations in real time.

Google Trends data show an increase in searches for "flight tracker" since March's Malaysia Airlines incident and then again after MH17 crashed last month, and flight tracking apps are now some of the most popular travel apps for iOS and Android, with both free and paid versions earning high rankings.

Flightradar24 Pro is the most-downloaded paid travel app in the U.S. for iOS and Android with more than three million downloads, according to Flightradar24 CEO Fredrik Lindahl.

Download numbers for July aren’t available, but Lindahl says he’s seen a “big increase” in sales over the past few weeks. The free version of the app has attracted even more downloads that the paid app.

FlightAware’s app also experienced a large increase in downloads following both Malaysia Airline disasters, and garnered more than 100,000 unique views on March 8 and July 17, according to Quantcast data and FlightAware’s CEO Daniel Baker. It's now the top free travel app for Android.

Besides the U.S., most of FlightAware’s unique views came from the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Canada.

Top Flight Tracking Apps By Downloads

iOS

Android

Source: App Annie