Border-crossing app FlashPass launches new iOS version
FlashPass, an app that streamlines U.S. and Mexican customs paperwork for international flights, has launched a new version that makes creating and submitting manifests to each country’s governing authority a matter of minutes.
Pilots crossing a U.S. border on international flights must file a manifest through U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Electronic Advance Passenger Information System (eAPIS) at least 60 minutes before departure. Mexico requires a two-step transmission process for passenger, crew, and transport lists to the Instituto Nacional de Migración. The FlashPass app can file for both countries simultaneously for flights between the United States and Mexico or individually for users who will be departing from or arriving in either country.
Version 2026 adds a worldwide airport database, the ability to select the nearest CBP-approved departure airport when departing from a non-approved airport within the United States, and capacity to store aircraft performance information that allows the app to automatically calculate the border crossing location and time. Users also can now be logged in on multiple devices simultaneously.
The airport database includes vital customs-related information for each airport, including CBP office phone numbers, an email address, user comments, and other information specific to clearing customs at that airport. Along with that comes the ability to enter the departure airport within the app and select the nearest CBP-approved airport in the United States if departing from one that is not approved. The nearest approved airport will be filed on the manifest, while the actual departure airport will be stored in the app.
In addition to storing pilot, crew, passenger, and emergency contact information in the app, users can now store performance information—average speed, climb speed, climb rate, and cruise altitude—in the aircraft profile. The app will use the information to calculate the border crossing location (based on straight line distance between the departure and destination on the crossing leg) and time (corrected for time zones and daylight saving time). Weather, such as winds, and deviations are not factored into the calculation. To allow for weather changes and deviations, pilots enter speeds slightly slower than the aircraft’s actual performance, according to Guerra. This allows pilots to still be at their crossing point within about five minutes, based on user data, he said. That is well within the one-hour window U.S. Customs allows.
“Pilots love it,” Guerra said of the new aircraft performance and border crossing time/location features. It is one less manual calculation pilots must make when preparing to fly internationally, he explained.
Automatically calculating the border crossing time is “quite useful,” said Wayne McClelland, a retired aerospace engineer. McClelland, who flies a Diamond DA40 out of Santa Barbara, California, has used FlashPass for 11 years to make 80 border crossings, most to Mexico to transport doctors and dentists to provide free clinics.
David Ridenour, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, flies a Beechcraft Premier and a Falcon 50 to Cabo San Lucas and Cancún in Mexico three to four times a month. He has been using FlashPass for four years and said that the user interface is much improved. “Sometimes I’m sending off two to three [manifests] at a time and this platform makes that a breeze,” Ridenour said.
The new version retains popular features from the previous one, such as the ability to scan a picture of a passport or upload it from the phone to automatically enter passenger information.
Previous manifests are stored, making it easy to clone and update one for a new flight. Guerra said one user completed the manifest filing process in six seconds. To enter new pilot, crew, passenger, emergency contact, and aircraft data the first time, it might take five to six minutes to create and file a manifest, he said.
FlashPass offers both subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing, starting at $19.99 for a single flight plan submission, or $79.99 for five. Subscription plans start at $155 for a single user and $495 for a commercial plan with unlimited users. The updated version for Android should be available by the end of the year or early 2027, Guerra said.
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