Cross-Platform Flight Planner App for a European Airport

Client

The Client is an international airport in Europe. The company owns a website that offers information on the airport services and allows booking flights online.

Challenge

The Client needed a mobile application that would let travelers access all necessary information about flights and airport regulations to easily plan a journey. They needed an experienced vendor to implement the app.

Solution

ScienceSoft developed an application that has iOS and Android versions. Both versions share the same functionality.

Arrival/Departure planning. The application allows planning arrivals or departures by:

• Searching and recording flights. The flight search can be performed using the date of arrival/departure and flight number. Also, the barcode on a ticket can be scanned and search will be performed based on ticket data.
• Calculating a trip to/from the airport based on the current location (input by the user or GPS data). If a user is planning to go by public transport, a route will be shown with indication of transport types that can be used, transfers and the duration of the trip. For cars – only duration will be estimated. The application also notifies the user about the necessity to depart and shows available transport options, helping the user to arrive on time.
• Parking planning. The application helps to calculate the cost of parking at the airport while taking into account the type of parking lot and duration. Users can choose the parking conditions that are most suitable for them. When a parking lot is chosen, a user can view the map of the airport with the parking lot position marked.

Tracking trips. A planned trip is recorded in an in-app notebook/database. The information (date, status, departure/arrival time, gate, zone, and baggage claim zone) is constantly updated for all recorded flights. When a traveler is nearing the airport, the application displays the closest flight from the list of recorded flights and parking information.

Miscellaneous functionality:

• In-application Arrival and Departure Board menu displays flights for the chosen date.
• Shop and Cafe information. The application shows all shops and cafes that offer discounts for people traveling to certain destinations and/or all available places of interest. Users can also view positions of shops and cafes on the airport map.
• Parking Reminder feature allows recording the parking lot, level and parking space where the car is parked.
• The Home screen of the application displays the length of lines for security check for recorded flights.
• The airport map displays all available shops, cafes as well as gates and zones.
• Referral information section gives access to data on Terms and Conditions, Lost and Found offices, Security Requirements.
• Panel of airport status displays current situation in the airport to show online information about delays, warnings, or other useful messages.
• Location services help to travel to/from the airport.
• External transport services allow to estimate travel time on car/taxi or public transport.

Results

After the initial development was finished, the Client requested support services and asked for continuous maintenance and evolution of the app.

Technologies and Tools

iOS: Objective-C, iOS SDK 5.1, Xcode 4, CoreData, JSON, Push Notifications.

Android: Android API 7+, Eclipse Indigo IDE, DDMS, Memory Analyzer Tool, Logcat, Lint, SQLite, JSON. Helium Push Notification Service, Tortoise SVN, Google Analytics.