ForeFlight has launched a beta version of a fair pricing tool that shows expected aircraft insurance premiums based on policy information and aircraft and flight experience shared by users. The Fair Price Tool is available to subscribers via the ForeFlight website, and it gathers information to display an expected premium range based on similar pilot profiles, according to ForeFlight.

“A lot of ForeFlight employees are pilots,” said senior product manager Connor Hailey, “and one of the most important things we care about is the cost of flying. Owners’ insurance is very opaque. It’s often not clear why they pay the premium they pay. We wanted to bring more transparency and built the price comparison tool.”

To access the tool, ForeFlight users must log into their ForeFlight Web account (not on the iPad or iPhone app). A new tab on ForeFlight Web allows those who want to participate in the Fair Price Tool to upload their insurance policy. ForeFlight logbook users will find their experience information already populated. “We add it to our database,” Hailey said, “do some machine learning, and spit out a range of where we think your premium should land based on the information given.”

There is no insurance company involvement in this process, and ForeFlight is not sharing any of this information with insurers or brokers, he said. “We want user data to be private. The data is also completely anonymized and aggregated. There is no way to see another user’s data.”

Launching the pricing tool as an open beta ensures that the resulting information is accurate before making it a permanent part of ForeFlight. “The more policies we have, the better,” he said. “We expect the algorithm to improve significantly over time.”

“The beauty of machine learning models is we are not opinionated or prescriptive about what the policy does. When we have enough data after pilots give us their policies, we can find things that may not be obvious. We’re hoping to find areas where we can give insights.”

For example, when looking at the results showing where the policy price range should be for the particular aircraft and customer, ForeFlight users might want to contact their insurance broker to see if they are paying a fair price. “If you’re close to the lower end, you might not want to bother the broker,” Hailey said. “If it’s in the high range, call now and see what’s going on. I’m hoping that we can increase transparency that at some point leads to lower prices.”

The Fair Price Tool focuses on popular aircraft because it’s harder to get accurate pricing information for models that have fewer numbers still flying. But with the submission of enough policy information, that could change. “For a lot of bespoke aircraft, there will be a point in the future where we can say with more fidelity where those premiums should land,” he said. ForeFlight is accepting policy information from any insurable aircraft but not renter’s or liability-only policies. The Fair Price Tool is only for general aviation owner-flown aircraft and not for ForeFlight business or military aviation customers.

“Insurance costs have increased in recent years, and many pilots don’t know if they’re getting a fair deal,” said ForeFlight CEO Tim Schuetze. “This is a big step toward bringing more transparency to an outdated, inconsistent system.”