Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

After releasing an aircraft insurance fair pricing tool last year, Jeppesen ForeFlight today launched its own aviation insurance brokerage. ForeFlight Insurance Agency will initially offer non-owned insurance, backed by underwriter Old Republic Aerospace, for renter pilots and flight instructors. In the third quarter, ForeFlight Insurance plans to add aircraft owner insurance from multiple underwriters, including Old Republic.
The fair pricing tool continues to be available on the ForeFlight website, and it allows owners to submit their insurance policy to be assessed for pricing value and coverage. “The fair pricing tool is still running,” said ForeFlight director of insurance Connor Hailey. “It’s a standalone part of what will be our insurance ecosystem, and informed how we built what we built now.”
The goal is to make buying aircraft insurance as easy as buying car insurance. All quoting is done online, with coverage details and prices. ForeFlight users have the option of linking their insurance activity with their ForeFlight logbook to make filling out the required information much easier. “It’s an ecosystem that we’re creating to just make it dead simple for pilots to be able to purchase insurance that works for them,” he said.
An added benefit for ForeFlight Insurance customers is that if they own any model of Sentry ADS-B In receiver, they will get a 10% discount on their insurance. All that is required is uploading the serial number from the Sentry device, which is automatic if the pilot has registered their Sentry previously for ForeFlight’s reported turbulence feature. There is a discount for AOPA membership, but this isn’t as much as the Sentry discount, and the two discounts do not stack.
The non-owned policies will be available to purchase for daily, weekly, monthly, or annual coverage. Unlike some other aviation insurers that are also offering this kind of coverage, ForeFlight Insurance will not require any connection to flight data to evaluate the pilot’s performance. “There is no data that’s shared with the insurance company on those devices,” Hailey said. “Our primary goal is to make this experience as easy as possible, and also to get customers the best price that we can.”
Pilots can purchase non-owned insurance for all types of aircraft, as well as ultralights and hang gliders, although the new company’s focus is generally on aircraft below single-engine turboprops or those valued at $1.5 million or less.
Quotes take just a few seconds. ForeFlight Insurance is offering $1 million smooth coverage per occurrence, the only insurer to do so, according to Hailey, and up to $200,000 physical damage liability coverage. Flight instructors can select categories that reflect their activities to avoid paying for unneeded coverage. For example, an instructor might rent airplanes and helicopters and need non-owned coverage for those, but only need flight instruction coverage for airplanes. “We don’t want to charge more if they’re not instructing in certain types,” he said.
ForeFlight Insurance’s deductible reimbursement “does not require the holder of the non-owned policy to be found liable for the damage,” Hailey said. Even if there is a dispute about who caused damage, he added, “you have this so-called no-fault deductible reimbursement that you’re going to be able to make sure that you're covered.” The policy comes with $5,000 in deductible reimbursement, but the buyer can increase that coverage, for example, if the owner of the aircraft has a higher deductible.
Hailey pointed out that other insurers typically default to $1,000 in medical payments per person. “We include $3,000 per person in the base policy by default.”
ForeFlight Insurance’s non-owner policies are available to certain ForeFlight customers now, and access will be expanded. Those interested now can add their names to a waitlist. The new company is licensed as an aviation insurance agency in 43 states, with all 50 expected by the third quarter.
“Buying aviation insurance today often feels like it’s still 1999—phone calls, PDFs in emails, and waiting days or weeks for a quote that might not even be competitive,” said Hailey. “Today, we’re changing the industry. Pilots should be able to get quotes, compare coverage, and bind a policy in minutes, the same way they buy car insurance. We built the Aviation Insurance Marketplace because no one else has the scale or technology to bring this industry into the modern era, but for us, bringing aviation into the digital era is in our DNA.”

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