AerScheduler vs Flight Circle: The Flight Circle alternative with native iOS and Android apps
Flight Circle runs on a phone as a web page added to the home screen. AerScheduler has its own apps on the App Store and Google Play, and a dispatch board that updates on every screen the moment a booking moves, with billing, maintenance and work orders on the same record.
14-day free trial · Cancel anytime · No sales call
App Store
Not listed
Google Play
Not listed
How you get it
Add the website to the home screen from the browser
Offline
"Soon", in its own FAQ
N472DP · Private pilot, pattern
8:00 AM to 10:00 AM
Next on schedule
Tue 9:30 AM
N472DP
Upcoming
4
next 30 days
Open squawks
2
Fleet
Unpaid
$186.00
1 invoice
Upcoming
See allN472DP · Solo, practice area
Tue, Sep 29 · 9:30 AM to 11:00 AM
N903MV · Cross-country dual
Thu, Oct 1 · 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM
Flight Circle on a phone
- App Store:
- Not listed
- Google Play:
- Not listed
- How you get it:
- Add the website to the home screen from the browser
- Offline:
- "Soon", in its own FAQ
Why schools move from Flight Circle
Your front desk wants a board that updates on every screen the moment a booking moves
Your pilots want an app from the App Store or Google Play, not a website on the home screen
Several people share flights and each needs their own invoice
Your mechanics work on customers' aircraft as well as your own
“Less need for owner supervision, aircraft maintenance is precisely tracked, and student progression is clearly defined.”
Side by side
with Flight Circle
What each product says it does. Where Flight Circle does not publish something, the row says so rather than guessing.
Buying it
- Pricing
- AerScheduler:$20/mo per aircraft. Unlimited users. Simulators and classrooms free.
- Flight Circle:$10 per aircraft or simulator a month. Unlimited users.
Scheduling
- Booking
- AerScheduler:Only the times when the aircraft, instructor and student are all free are offered, checked for currency and checkouts, and live on every screen.
- Flight Circle:A schedule with split views, recurring reservations and booking restrictions.
- Live schedule
- AerScheduler:Every screen in the school updates the moment a booking changes.
- Flight Circle:Not published
- Mobile apps
- AerScheduler:Native apps on the App Store and Google Play, with push notifications.
- Flight Circle:A web app added to the home screen from the browser. Not on the App Store or Google Play.
Money
- Shared flights
- AerScheduler:Any number of people on one booking, split per head, by logged time or in set shares, with an invoice each.
- Flight Circle:Rideshare: a second pilot on the reservation, with the bill split between them.
- Overnight trips
- AerScheduler:One reservation across nights, with a minimum charge per night set per aircraft.
- Flight Circle:A multi-day scheduling restriction. Per-night minimums not published.
- Close-out
- AerScheduler:Ramp-in drafts the invoice from the meters and the rates on the tail. Card, ACH or account balance.
- Flight Circle:Check-in bills the flight. Cards on file, ACH, autopay and a member ledger.
Maintenance
- Inspections
- AerScheduler:Tach, Hobbs and calendar-month countdowns. An overdue inspection grounds the aircraft.
- Flight Circle:Meter, time and calendar reminders. An expired one blocks dispatch for basic users.
- Airworthiness directives
- AerScheduler:Every AD in the library naming the airframe, engine or propeller, from a library updated daily, listed for a person to decide.
- Flight Circle:Entered by hand as a maintenance reminder, with a link to the directive.
- Work orders
- AerScheduler:On your own fleet and on customers' aircraft, with the owner approving each finding online and paying the invoice.
- Flight Circle:Not published
Connecting
- Integrations
- AerScheduler:Stripe, Google Calendar and QuickBooks Online.
- Flight Circle:QuickBooks Online, Google Calendar, Mailchimp and Fiserv card terminals.
- API
- AerScheduler:A documented public REST API on the Enterprise plan.
- Flight Circle:By arrangement: contact them.
Flight Circle is a trademark of its owner. Rows describe what each product publishes; "not published" means we could not confirm it, not that it is absent.
Scheduling
and dispatch
Booking only offers the times when the aircraft, the instructor and the student are all free, and shows the next opening. Currency, checkouts, grounded aircraft and open squawks are checked before it saves, and every screen in the school sees the change at once.
Compared with Flight Circle. Both check checkouts and currency before a booking saves. Here students and renters book from a native app, with a push notification when the schedule changes.
Learn moreType
Dual
Aircraft
N472DP
When
Mon 3:00 PM
Student
Jamie Castellano
Billing
for shared flights
Hobbs and tach go in at ramp-in and the invoice is built from your rates. Charge a card on file, run autopay, or keep members on a prepaid account ledger.
Compared with Flight Circle. Flight Circle's Rideshare splits a flight between two pilots. Here any number of people share a booking, split per head, by logged time or in set shares, with an invoice each.
Learn moreRamp-in · Hobbs 1234.5 → 1237.4
Aircraft, N903MV
$478.50
2.9 Hobbs hr × $165
Instruction
$182.00
2.6 hr × $70
Landing fee
$15.00
KBDN
Invoice total
$675.50
Charged Visa ending 4242
Emeka Nwosu · Cross-country dual · Sep 28
Maintenance
and AD tracking
Every inspection counts down by tach, Hobbs or calendar month, and an overdue annual grounds the aircraft until it is signed off. Every AD in the library that names the airframe, engine or propeller is listed for a person to decide, from a library updated daily.
Compared with Flight Circle. In Flight Circle an AD is a reminder you type in, with a link to the directive. Here you pick it from the library and track it on the airframe or the component it applies to.
Learn more100-hour inspection
12.4
tach hours left
Oil change
6.8
Hobbs hours left
Annual inspection
64
days left
100-hour inspection
0.0
tach hours left
Dana Whitfield approved it from the email
Work orders
for any aircraft
Open a job on one of your own aircraft or a customer's. Write up what you find, send it to the owner to approve, decline or put off each item, and close it out into an invoice with labor at your shop rate and parts at cost plus your markup.
Compared with Flight Circle. Flight Circle tracks squawks and maintenance reminders, and its documentation has no work orders. Here a job runs from the finding to the owner's approval to a paid invoice.
Learn moreThe belt waits for the next visit, off this bill
Reporting
and insight
21 reports on the same records as the schedule, from revenue and utilization to currency and endorsements. Filter and group any of them, save the view, export it to CSV or PDF, or email it daily, weekly or monthly.
Compared with Flight Circle. Flight Circle has standard reports with CSV export. Here each of 21 reports can be filtered, grouped, saved as a view and emailed daily, weekly or monthly.
Learn moreHow often
Day
Monday
Time
7:00 AM
Send to
Sent as a CSV, every Monday at 7:00 AM
$20 per aircraft. Every instructor, student and renter included. No sales call.
Also in every plan
Simulators and classrooms cost nothing
They are first-class resources on the dispatch board, bookable like any tail, and they never appear on your bill. You pay $20 per aircraft and nothing else, however many people you invite.
PricingThe whole school sees the same schedule, immediately
A booking change reaches every browser and phone in the school as it happens, so the front desk, the instructor walking to the ramp and the student at home are never looking at three different versions of today.
Scheduling & DispatchThe tail goes out on Friday and comes back Sunday
Multi-day trips are one reservation across nights, with an overnight minimum you set per aircraft or school-wide, so a weekend rental does not need a manual invoice and a mental note.
Multi-day rentals
Mobile app
iOS and Android apps for students, instructors and mechanics
Included on every plan, and working from the same schedule, invoices and maintenance records as the web console.
- Students and renters
- Book aircraft and pay invoices from their phone.
- Instructors
- See the day and grade lessons in the app, even without a signal.
- Mechanics
- Log squawks with photos and attach inspection files from the ramp.
- Everyone
- Push notifications when the schedule changes, and standby offers to accept.
Upcoming
Moving from Flight Circle
Flight Circle already runs your schedule, so the question is not whether software helps. It is whether the rest of the day still costs you more admin than it should. We move your data and set the school up with you, and you keep Flight Circle running in parallel for as long as it takes to trust the new one.
01
A person moves your data, not an importer
Export what you can out of Flight Circle and we get it into AerScheduler with you. Odd formats and missing fields become a conversation rather than a dead end, because a human is doing it.
02
We set the school up with you
Aircraft, rates, instructors, permissions and booking rules, configured with the team that builds the product. On a call if you want one, and never as a condition of signing up.
03
Keep both running until you are ready
Nothing forces a cutover date. Run Flight Circle alongside AerScheduler and stop using it when the front desk stops opening it, which is usually the moment you know.
04
Nothing to sign, nothing locked in
14 days free, and nothing is charged if you cancel before they end. Every report exports to CSV, so the answer to "what if we change our mind" is a download rather than a support ticket.
Common questions
- How is AerScheduler different from Flight Circle?
- Both run a flight school's schedule, billing and maintenance. AerScheduler's dispatch board updates on every screen the moment a booking moves and books from native iOS and Android apps, where Flight Circle is a web app on the home screen. Any number of people can share a booking with an invoice each, work orders run on customers' aircraft as well as your own, and ADs come from a library.
- Is AerScheduler cheaper than Flight Circle?
- No. Flight Circle publishes $10 per aircraft or simulator a month. AerScheduler is $20 per aircraft, with simulators and classrooms free and every user included. Schools move for the scheduling: only the times when the aircraft, instructor and student are all free are offered, every screen updates at once, and students book from a native app, with billing, maintenance and work orders on the same record.
- Can I try it before talking to anyone?
- Yes. There is a live demo you can open with no signup, and a 14-day free trial with no sales call.
- Does it handle multi-day and overnight rentals?
- Yes. A trip that spans nights is one reservation, with an overnight minimum you set per aircraft or school-wide, so a weekend rental does not need a manual invoice afterwards.
When we may not be the right fit
- Cost per aircraft decides it: Flight Circle publishes $10 a month per aircraft or simulator
- You want a safety management system with safety reports in the same tool
- You sell at the counter and want inventory and a point of sale in the scheduler
- You already run a large deployment elsewhere and moving it would cost more than it saves
Flight school software pricing
$20 per aircraft per month, with unlimited users
A ten-aircraft school pays $200 a month. Start with a 14-day free trial. Nothing is charged until it ends.
“Before AerScheduler, we used a mix of a shared Google Calendar and Venmo to conduct aircraft rental, flight instruction and payments. The AerScheduler system has improved our operations tremendously. Less need for owner supervision, aircraft maintenance is precisely tracked, and student progression is clearly defined.”
Murray Aviation
On AerScheduler since 2023
Included in every plan
- Scheduling, billing, training, maintenance and reporting
- Unlimited instructors, students and renters
- iOS and Android apps
- Simulators and classrooms at no charge
- No setup fee and no contract
Comparing a few others?