Popular FMS (AIRAC) data and charts provider Navigraph has made some changes to the way you can purchase access to their products. Going forward, Navigraph is bundling their FMS Data and Charts subscriptions. There is no official announcement through the Navigraph news section, but on their forums there are a few posts that announce the change and get provide some deeper explanation on it.
Navigraph has up until now been offering their services through three separate subscriptions: an FMS Data subscription, a Charts subscription and an Ultimate subscription. The latter was a combination of the FMS Data and Charts access, and was available through a monthly as well as a yearly subscription.
After the recent changes, Navigraph has upgraded all users of the FMS Data subscription to an Ultimate subscription. Navigraph is doing this without any additional costs for your current subscription period. Your subscription will begin to cost more at the end of your current subscription period +3 months. The three months are considered as complimentary by Navigraph so you can explore the Charts service and see what it has to offer.
Of course all these changes beg the question as to why this is all happening. This was explained by Navigraph too, in the aforementioned forum post. The team sees their software, and software developed by other developers, as increasingly complimenting each other. A good example of this are the planes, most of which use Navigraph data for their navdata. This navdata is complemented by Charts, which can visualise this data and calculate routes based upon it. There are also integrations with services such as SimBrief that use the Navigraph data as an underlying data structure for their route calculation. Another example is how developers are integrating not only the navdata, but also the charts into their add-ons. EFB’s are becoming more of a norm, and many developers are integrating Navigraph Charts into these EFB’s.
Another reason specified by Navigraph for going ahead with these changes is their own roadmap. This roadmap was shared with us earlier this year. The team is working on more products to expand their current offering, and bundling all their products under one subscription is something they wish to do. Some of the roadmap items are VFR charts, weather, traffic network and better integrations for other add-on developers.
This change received so much comments, that CEO and Co-Founder Magnus Axholt took to the forums with a more in-depth explanation on things. Magnus addresses some of the most common comments, such as people simply having no interest in the Charts app, or the increase in price for people with a subscription (after their subscription period ends, +3 months). He also re-iterates that they want to serve their users the best way they can.
Update: Navigraph has reverted all the changes discussed above. You can read more about the reversion in this article.
