vroute End Of Life announcement

Michal Rok · Post by **Michal Rok** » Wed Aug 30, 2023 10:36 am

Even good things come to an end. After nearly 18 years from the first flight plan database going online, and 17 since EUroute Module (our first PC app) was launched, it's time to sunset the vroute brand.

What & when
vroute will go permanently offline on January 1st, 2024. This will affect all vroute-branded software (vroute.info, vroute.premium) as well as related services such as NOTAM Center. The flight plan database we made available to other websites will also be shut down.

Why?
It's really old software. Internally, vroute runs on programming language that most programmers of 2023 never even heard of, on unsupported versions of other programs such as Internet Explorer 6. It's great that it still works for you and that I was able to keep it running for close to 20 years, but I cannot keep it that way forever.

Keeping vroute up is a personal challenge, both in terms of time & the cost of external services such as hosting. Rebuilding it into modern IT tools has been a massive effort which I could not personally support, nor envision others supporting. Simply handing over the passwords to someone was not possible for legal reasons (personal data etc.) and because there was no way to prevent further decline which would put the data at risk.

What about premium users?
vroute has been sold as vroute.premium since 2008 and has reached almost 20.000 subscribers. I am deeply grateful you for your financial contribution that allowed me to keep the service for the community, also for those who couldn't or didn't want to spend money on the premium product.

The shutdown will affect vroute.premium as well, and it will not be available from January 1st, 2024. Your vroute will not work at all after that day.

FAQ: Is that legal?
The last copies of vroute.premium were sold in 2021. The license contract required the service to remain available for minimum 2 years since your purchase. That period will expire for the last users on December 31st 2023.

What if I have other questions?
Please post them below.