Surface Ops is a free situational-awareness tool for anyone interested in airport surface operations — pilots, students, ramp staff, plane spotters, and the general public — with optional licensed features for professional airport ground-operations teams.
Free for everyone, at every US airport:
• Airport diagrams (runways, taxiways, aprons, hotspots)
• GPS-based ownship position on the airport surface
• METAR, TAF, and D-ATIS weather
• Live ADS-B traffic from a uAvionix skyAlert receiver (a separately-purchased consumer accessory)
• Runway-incursion alerts: CHECK RUNWAY, TRAFFIC RUNWAY, CHECK FINAL, TRAFFIC FINAL and Aircraft Emergency Alerts
• Visual highlighting of the runway under alert
• Offline operation once an airport diagram is cached (weather requires internet)
Optional licensed feature, at participating airports:
Airports that contract with uAvionix for the professional toolset can issue a one-time activation code to their authorized vehicle operators, which adds the FlightLine ADS-B network traffic feed from the airport's ground-based receivers, no per-vehicle hardware required.
No in-app purchase. The app and all consumer-facing features are free. Licensed airports pay uAvionix directly; the end-user operator never pays anything inside the app.
What Surface Ops is NOT:
• Not a certified safety system
• Not a substitute for ATC instructions or established ground-movement procedures
• Not a primary means of collision avoidance — visual scanning and radio communication remain primary
Privacy
Surface Ops collects only what's needed to operate: your activation code, a per-device licensing identifier, and—with your permission—your GPS location to display your position on the airport map. Location data stays on the device; we do not transmit it to our servers. No analytics, no advertising SDKs, no tracking.
Terms
Use of this app is subject to the Apple Standard End User License Agreement (EULA):
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeveula/
Published by CAVU Consulting LLC on behalf of uAvionix Corporation.
Ratings & Reviews
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
See where vehicle transmitters go quiet, and cleaner traffic details.
VMAT Transmit Map (new layer). Turn it on from the Map tab to see the FAA boundary that decides where an airport vehicle's ADS-B transmitter broadcasts: a solid magenta outline around the area where vehicles transmit, and dashed magenta outlines around the zones inside it where they stay silent. When a vehicle drops off the traffic display, this shows whether it simply drove out of the transmit area. Available at the airports where the FAA has published a transmit map.
Ground vehicles no longer show aircraft details. Airport vehicles were picking up an aircraft type, tail number and route from their transponder code — an ops truck could appear as a Boeing 737. Vehicles now show only what is really known about them.
Crash-phone alerts: removed the "Play audio" link, which could never work — the recording is not accessible to the app.
Refreshed the in-app description and the D-ATIS data-source credit.
Version 1.5.2
The developer, CAVU Consulting LLC, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Location
Identifiers
Usage Data
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
CAVU Consulting LLC
Size
4.8 MB
Category
Productivity
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.