FlightAware.com, the Web site that allows anyone to track domestic IFR flights from takeoff to touchdown, is releasing two new online products aimed primarily at FBOs and business aviation customers.

AirportAware uses FlightAware’s live FAA air traffic data to provide general aviation operation information on an LCD or plasma flat-screen television. It can be tailored using a Web-based interface to display flight information that’s most pertinent to an FBO’s staff and customers by filtering out, for example, the N-numbers of aircraft belonging to competing FBOs.

“It’s taking the concept of the arrival departure boards at major airports to the next level,” said Daniel Baker, founder and chief executive of Houston-based FlightAware.
“It’s sort of an entertainment source at smaller airports. There are not that many private flights going in and out compared to a commercial airport, so it cycles between high-definition video and weather maps…it’s a gorgeous element of the atmosphere of the FBO.”

Prices for AirportAware range from $2,950 (which does not include an LCD monitor) to $7,950 (which includes a 50-inch LCD monitor). All AirportAware packages include the necessary hardware and software, power supply and a 50-foot HDMI/DVI cable. The AirportAware “Appliance” hardware can connect to a wireless network or via an Ethernet connection. The monthly subscription fee is $125, with the first customer deliveries expected on November 27.

The DirectFlight API (or “application programming interface,” in Web parlance) allows customers to incorporate FlightAware’s flight tracking data into their existing aviation software applications. DirectFlight uses XML (or “extensible markup technology”) to deliver the data in a plain-text format that can be parsed by a variety of applications.

Baker, a pilot who has been in the Internet application and services business for more than a decade and is a published author on the subject of Internet protocols, said documentation for using the DirectFlight API will be available for free on the company’s Web site.

Founded in March 2005, FlightAware (Booth No. 608) offers a variety of commercial data services, including statistical analysis, historical data, automated reports, as well as real-time XML feeds to commercial aircraft operators, air carriers, airport operators, FBOs and other aviation businesses.

FlightAware receives and processes more than 6.5 million FAA radar position and flight information messages daily to provide flight tracking information for more than 50,000 flights each day over the United States.