Navigraph : All new stuff

In a quite long but detailed and informative press release, Navigraph lists the changes they’ve made to their services. Those don’t change : providing regular Airac Cycle navigation data for onboard FMS or flight planning, but also updated and quality aviation charts (airports, SIDs/STARs, Enroute..) and even video tutorials.

Their products services are now labelled in Euros and you can purchase them with prepaid coupons at simMarket. If you still own credits, they remain valid for 9 months as before. In approximately 9 months, all remaining credits will be converted in Euros credited to your user account as coupons. If you don’t have credits anymore or you want to be a new customer, you’ll use the new system of coupons only from now on.

The new payment system seems to be easier than the previous, but the more interesting changes follow : large increase of charts coverage and number of airports too thanks to new contracts with their suppliers, and a new customer fidelity program appears. Their complete press release is reproduced below when you click on Read More…

January has been the time of change here at Navigraph. Finally, we are happy to share the fruits of our labor: a New FMS Data Product, a New Charts Client and New Data Revision, a New Website, a New Payment System, New Prices, and a New Customer Fidelity Program.

New FMS Data Product

Following months of negotiating new contracts, planning data merges and organizing beta tests, we are finally pleased to announce a new FMS Data coverage. The data is available for download from the Navigraph website on www.navigraph.com

The current dataset contains 13,034 airports (20%), 33,685 runways (16%), 24,254 IAPs (55%) (Instrument Approach Procedures), 21,597 STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Routes) (6%), 31,686 SIDs (Standard Instrument Departures) (5%), parsed into more than 48 different addon formats. The percentages denote the increase compared the previous coverage.

FMS Data is a general purpose dataset used for in a wide array of applications ranging from flight planning systems in the operations office to various navigational and performance systems onboard. Subsequently the data contains a massive amount of information to determine not only location of airports and waypoints, but also surface type and slope of runways, the layout of airport gates, navaid frequencies, holding patterns, obstacles close to defined routes, and much more. Navigraph has provided FMS Data since October 2006 after the merger with Richard Stefan of NAVData-Service who had previously worked on similar datasets since 1999.

As usual, new and existing users are welcome to try the data and provide feedback and suggestions for changes through the Navigraph forum.

New Charts Client and New Data Revision

Navigraph Charts 4.0 builds on the chart viewer client with an integrated video player and download manager formerly known as nDAC. Navigraph Charts offers 33,349 charts distributed over 1,866 airports all over the world. The charts are updated four times a year and are supplied by Navtech.

Along with the new Charts 4.0 release we also publish a new batch of chart data (batch #30), to replace batch #29 which was released in October 2012.

The revised Navigraph Charts 4.0 incorporates many of the functions which were requested by users through the previous forum. Some examples are:

• Pan and Zoom memory: The viewer remembers how the chart was last displayed.
• Tiled printing: Large enroute charts can now be printed on several sheets of paper.
• Online Backup and Recovery: Previously purchased charts can be downloaded again for free.
• Batch printing: Send an entire airport, or a subset of charts, to the printer.
• Airport deletion: Old airports, which are no longer needed, can be deleted.
• New payment system: No credits. Instead – directly select, queue, and pay for a set of data to download.
• The new Navigraph Charts client is available for download from the Navigraph website on www.navigraph.com

New Website

The website has been redesigned and received a much needed reorganization. Existing users can log in as usual with their existing details. Some of the new functions are:

As a new or existing user logs in for the first time, a forum profile is automatically created in the Support Forum. The Navigraph username is also used in the forum. New parts of the forum open up as users purchase particular products, allowing Navigraph Support Staff to provide even more specialized help for paying customers only.

The new website serves as the backbone for the new payment system. Through the website it is possible to manage the credit card and PayPal accounts connected to the Navigraph account.

Accounts can be associated with secure questions which allows for account recovery even if email address is lost or permanently changed.

You may visit us here: www.navigraph.com

New Payment System

While it served its purpose well for managing micro payments, the credit system is now on its way of being phased out. Credits can still be used for another 270 days, but already today new users are welcome to try a system which charges money at the time of purchase or accumulates a bill which is charged periodically. It is also possible to connect a credit card or a PayPal account to the Navigraph account to be charged automatically. Users can set a limit to their spending and automatic charges from Navigraph Charts are protected with an additional password.

To seamlessly phase from the old credit system to the new system with connected accounts and manual payments the following policy will apply:

Navigraph will stop selling credits with immediate effect upon launch of the new website and its new payment system, expected end January 2013.

The credits can be used to pay for services for a period of 270 days after the launch of the new website which constitute a normal credit expiry period.

Effective from the launch of the new website, credits expiry period cannot be prolonged since new credits can no longer be purchased. Instead, credits will not expire during the 270 day period following the website launch. The website will offer a function to convert the credits to a Navigraph issued coupon with a monetary value corresponding to the purchase value of the remaining credits. The user can choose to use the credits during the 270 days and select data from a price list based on credits, or convert the credits to a coupon and choose from a price list based on Euros. (Conversion back from Euro to credits is not supported.) At the end of the 270 days, any remaining credits will automatically be converted to coupons which are emailed to the respective user. Coupons are valid six months from the date of issue.

The prices of Navigraph services will remain unchanged for credit users during the 270 days.

Users who have spent all their credits, or who have converted credits into a coupon, or new users, will be offered data according to a new price list based on Euros.

The website and download clients will display prices in credits for as long as the account has a positive credit balance and then automatically switch to monetary prices.

The Payment History will fill the function of the previous Credit Log, but will display the previous credit payments with a leading “Legacy”.

More information can be found in the Navigraph Support Forum on www.navigraph.com/forum

New Prices

The prices for Navigraph data and services have not changed since 2006. During this time both the Euro and the Dollar have weakened, the Swedish inflation is up by 16%, the licensing costs have increased, and we are now maintaining more data than ever. To adjust for these factors, prices have been adjusted and will be applied once a user converts over to the new payment system.

Airport charts which were previously 2 credits (EUR 0.20) per airport are now EUR 0.24 excluding VAT, and EUR 0.30 for users within the EU. Since 90 of the 1,800 airports contain more than 50 charts, these airports have been marked up to EUR 0.36 excluding VAT, EUR 0.45 including VAT.

Enroute charts which were previously 10 credits (EUR 1.00) are now EUR 1.24 excluding VAT, and EUR 1.55 including VAT.

Video tutorials which were previously 40 credits (EUR 4.00) are now EUR 3.92 excluding VAT, and EUR 4.90 including VAT.

The increased prices should also be seen in the light of some new functionality which has been added. For instance, charts and data can be freely restored at any time in the future. Furthermore, users are not required to purchase a minimum of 100 credits (EUR 10.00).

FMS Data which was previously available for 1 cycle or 13 cycles at 20 (EUR 2.00) or 200 credits (EUR 20.00) is now sold for 3.92 EUR excluding VAT and 4.90 EUR including VAT, and 19.92 EUR excluding VAT and 24.90 EUR including VAT, respectively. (Please note that the 1 cycle comparison is not entirely accurate because of the minimum purchase of 100 credits. A more accurate comparison would be to consider the 100 credits as a 5 cycle package which can be used over 270 days, to be juxtaposed with the new 4 cycle package presented next.)

A new package in which 4 cycles can be downloaded over the course of a year is also introduced to address users’ request for an option which catered to those not needing continuous updates. It costs EUR 11.92 excluding VAT and EUR 14.90 including VAT.

It should be noted that the new prices of the 13 and 4 cycle packages offer a 61% and 25% volume discount compared to the 23% volume discount of the 13 cycle package based on credit payment.

New Customer Fidelity Program

A new customer fidelity program called Navigraph Frequent Flyer has been created. It identifies users who make frequent use of Navigraph services and recognizes them as loyal customers. They are offered:

• Discounts
• Support Forum priority
• Beta Tester invitations

The ranks are Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The users can see their rank after logging into the Navigraph website. The rank is also visible to others in posts in the Navigraph Support Forum.

Currently, Platinum users receive 15% discount, and Gold users receive 10% discount. The discounts and ranking criteria are subjects to change.