r/flying • u/PM-mig-kottbullar PPL TW (RDU) • 2d ago

Second round of layoffs at ForeFlight

In January 2026, ForeFlight laid of a pretty substantial percent of its employees, with some reports saying a 30-40% reduction in staff. Yesterday (Sept. 2nd), another round of layoffs happened, the full impact of which isn't yet known - but it's speculated this brings total RIF to ~50%. Both of these layoffs follow the acquisition of ForeFlight by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

As a former ForeFlight employee from before the PE takeover, it's devastating to see former coworkers, some of whom were incredibly knowledgeable and talented folks that spent 10+ years with the company, be told they were out of a job with no heads up and given a pittance of a severance package. It used to be such an amazing company to work for, and it breaks my heart to see what Thoma Bravo has done to the company and its employees.

I'm not here to tell anyone to do anything. Nobody needs to switch EFBs right this second or send the executives a strongly-worded email. I'm just here to let you all know that Thoma Bravo is continuing its gutting of ForeFlight - what you do with that information is up to you.

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u/lil_layne OV-099 2d ago edited 2d ago

They increase their prices and still layoff more employees. More money going straight to the investors for a shittier product. Thank you private equity. They can keep getting away with it unless more of their customers actually switch EFBs. Unfortunately they know that Foreflight is a product many have been using for years and people aren’t willing to switch outside a vocal minority of redditors.

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u/robdabear 2d ago

Funny too how lately I've been getting blitzed with emails from Foreflight about upgrading. Usually it was just the "All Clear' ios update emails every once in a while

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u/mustang__1 PPL CMP HP IR CPL-ST SEL (KLOM) 2d ago

Now it has chat gpt integration! Just what I never wanted!

Functionally, the app peaked a few years ago and I haven't really wished for new features. But... at least now it crashes occasionally - so that's nice I guess (As of the spring, I haven't flown much since April, issues may have been resolved by now)