I first downloaded this app a couple of weeks ago, but forgot about it once the Galaxy Nexus made its way home. Today, I was sent a link to this app on the Play Store and that’s when I remembered that it also existed on iOS. It’s good to see developers targeting both these popular platforms simultaneously these days. The ANA Portuguese Airports app (referred to as ANAPA for the rest of the article) is an app that puts all the information relating to the major airports in the country of Portugal.
The most notable thing about the app is its UI. Unlike most iOS apps, the UI of ANAPA is heavily inspired & very much like the homescreens on Android. There’s a wide background image and multiple sections that you swipe to access. There’s a nice parallax scrolling effect when you do this, and is most noticeable on the iOS and Android app. On the iPad, since the app has a much larger screen estate to utilize, it takes a slightly different approach and yet manages to make you feel right at home. On the smartphones, swiping left to right will take you to the flight information screen, swiping top to bottom will let you change the airports, swiping bottom to the top will take you the planning screen while swiping right to left takes you to the explore section. The icons used are fantastic and fit well within the app.
You can look up a flight by its number, carrier company or by origin/destination. Once you select your flight, you are presented a gorgeously designed gate pass about the flight. On the smartphones, it has the usual information neatly laid out in the first tab, also giving you the option to track the flight (ANAPA does Push Notifications too). The second tab gives you information about the airline company, along with the customer care number and the website while the third tab shows you the weather conditions of the other cities. All this information also exists on the iPad, sans the tabs at the bottom. The following is a screenshots from the iPad and here’s one from the smartphone version.
The app supports information from the Lisbon, Faro, Oporto, Beja and Azores airports. There’s a metric ton of other information in the app, including the parking options available at the airport along with the classes and a map, your travel options to and from the airport, news, schedules and general contact information for the airport. There’s no doubt in my mind that a lot of thought has gone into the making of this app and just a few minutes of playing around with it makes this evident.
ANA Portuguese Airports app is definitely a valuable tool for anyone planning to travel to any of those airports. And even if you’re not, you should still download the app and play around, it’s beautifully done. The app is free to download, both on the iOS App Store as a Universal app and on the Google Play Store for Android.