January 2026 Updates

Each new year brings both continuity and change. Starting in 2026, this monthly newsletter will go out to all instructors, schools, and aviation professionals together, as we build a more connected and flexible platform for the aviation community.

January 17, 2025

1. Platform Expansion: Beyond Flight Training

While Skyfarer began with a strong focus on flight instructors and training schools, we’ve recognized a reality many of you live every day: aviation careers evolve. Many CFIs progress into additional or new roles — mentorship, ferry flights, consulting, aircraft services, content, equipment, and other professional offerings.

Last month, we’ve officially opened categories for aviation professionals beyond instruction, allowing the platform to better reflect how the general aviation ecosystem actually works. We also added a new category focused on aviation gear and equipment resale, aiming to give equipment a second life, reduce barriers to entry for pilots, and connect buyers and sellers across the country to put gear back into circulation.

That said, flight training remains a core priority. Many of the features currently in development are specifically designed to continue serving the training community, alongside thoughtful integrations with external software where it makes sense.

2. 2026 Q1-2 Product Roadmap (High-Level)

Below are several initiatives we’re working on this year:

• Shipping Support Integration (In Progress): We’ve selected a multi-carrier shipping solution to support fast, reliable, and cost-effective shipping — including labels, tracking, insurance, and related logistics for physical items. More details will be shared once ready. In the meantime, you can already list used gear for sale on Skyfarer.
• Expanded Transaction Fields (In Progress): Adding additional data fields when a customer initiates a transaction. Transaction fields work similarly to user and listing fields, but appear during checkout or inquiry to capture more relevant details upfront.
• Response Rate and Average Response Time (In Progress): We’re enhancing listing profile cards to display response rate and average response time. These metrics help customers identify reliable providers more easily, while rewarding responsive sellers and improving trust, conversion, and overall platform health.
• Featured Listings on Pages (In Progress): Today, most listings are shown only in search results. We’re building the ability to automatically feature selected listings or listing groups on key pages — creating greater visibility opportunities without manual setup.
• Support for Images and Digital Files (Next): Many use cases require file sharing — such as instructors selling digital training materials, or students and instructors exchanging images or documents before and after sessions. This update will allow files to be attached directly in messages.
• Price Negotiation & Updated Offers (Next): For the “Ask Me a Quote” listing type, customers are currently unable to update an offer after submitting it. We’re working toward more flexible offer and negotiation workflows.
• Additional Payment Options (Later): We’re researching ways to support more payment methods — both for how customers pay and how providers get paid. This is still in the exploration phase, but it’s an area we’re actively evaluating.
• Scheduling Software Integration for Training, Aircraft and Logbook (Later): We’ve begun early conversations around integrating with existing scheduling software for training, aircraft availability, and logbooks. We’ll share updates once there’s more clarity.

3. Update on Training Request Listings

We’ve temporarily paused the beta training request listing feature after student feedback showed the initial flow wasn’t working as intended.

To keep the platform simple and clear, listings are now limited to the provider and seller side only. We still see value in supporting student-initiated requests and expect this to work better through a different implementation approach, which we’ll revisit later.

4. Introducing Our New Support Center

A new, dedicated Skyfarer Support Center is now live, making it easier to find answers, guides, and platform updates in one place.

Hosting help content on a separate sub-domain support site allows us to keep resources clear, organized, and easy to access, while continuing to improve the core Skyfarer experience. It also enables more frequent updates as new features and workflows are released.

The Support Center will continue to grow throughout 2026 as we add more documentation and helpful resources for instructors, aviation professionals, and customers.

5. Platform Fee Update

As part of supporting continued development and infrastructure, Skyfarer’s platform fee will increase from 5% to 10%. It includes credit card processing fees, so there are no additional payment processing charges applied separately.

Behind the scenes, our team has been continuously improving the platform. This adjustment enables us to roll out more important features, expand support resources, and invest in platform visibility, performance, and overall reliability — helping drive more demand to listings across categories.

You remain fully in control of your pricing and can adjust your rates at any time if needed. Skyfarer is committed to working closely with you to support the broader pilot and aviation community together.

6. Mobile Apps Coming Soon

Platform visibility continues to grow. Over the last 30 days:

• Google Search Impressions increased 22% month-over-month (83,700+)
• Total page views reached 31,680
• On-site search events exceeded 8,700

We’ve also seen that many users access Skyfarer from their mobile devices, and mobile apps have been one of the most requested updates from you and others. We’re now in the final phase of launching the Skyfarer app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and we’re excited to bring the full platform experience into your pocket.

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Whether you’ve been with us since the early days or just recently joined, thank you for being part of Skyfarer. We’re excited about what 2026 holds and look forward to building it together.

Onward and upward,
The Skyfarer Academy Team