Approach Control vs Aviateur
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Approach Control
Experience the thrill of managing air traffic in a realistic simulation. Guide passenger jets to safe landings by controlling their heading, speed, and altitude, adhering to strict separation rules. This app offers an authentic taste of air traffic control.
- Realistic radar simulation
- Authentic pilot voices
- Manage heading, speed, and altitude
- Maintain aircraft separation
- Simulates final approach procedures
- Earn points for efficiency
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Approach Control is a highly realistic air traffic control simulation, designed by real world air traffic controllers. It uses authentic pilot voices. This app is designed to give aviation enthusiasts a taste of the world's greatest job. The radar behavior in this app is identical to that of real-world air traffic control radar screens, utilizing a 3-second sweep that air traffic controllers are accustomed to. Much work has been done to make such a complex job fit inside the palm of your hand. You are the approach controller whose job is to manage arriving passenger jets at various busy airports. Establish arriving aircraft onto 'final approach' as safely and efficiently as possible. As in the real world of ATC, you must walk a very fine line between being cautious and being expeditious. A top notch air traffic controller knows how to bring planes in 'tight', without breaking the 'three mile rule'. Keep all aircraft at least THREE MILES apart or at least 1000 FEET VERTICALLY apart. That's your job in a nutshell! Earn extra points by establishing the planes onto final approach without extra wasted space. Air traffic controlling is achieved by assigning a mixture of three things: HEADING, SPEED, and ALTITUDE. Use these three tools to achieve safety and efficiency. A successful air traffic controller must remain CALM, COOL and COLLECTED, known as the 'three C's'. Who knows, you may one day use these skills and apply for a real ATC job! Find out why real-world air traffic controllers have nerves of steel.
Aviateur
Experience realistic flight simulation with a variety of aircraft and diverse, accurate real-world locations. Engage in air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, master challenging landings, and customize weather conditions for an immersive adventure.
- Multiple aircraft types
- Geographically accurate locations
- Air combat (WWII and Modern)
- Dynamic weather system
- Challenging landings
- Customizable flight dynamics
- Day/Night cycle
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Features: -Several aircraft to choose from -Diverse, geographically accurate real-world locations - Air-to-Air and Air-to-ground combat battles against fighter jets, WWII aircraft, tanks, destroyers, submarines, AAAs, SAM missile systems - 2 Combat Eras to choose from - WWII and Modern - Command wingmen into combat, or fly various formations - Rack up a high score in Air Endurance mode where you fight endless enemies -Practice aircraft carrier, destroyer ship and oil platform landings -24 hour Day/Night cycle -Customizable, fully dynamic weather that varies spatially and with time (clear, cloudy, hurricane, thunderstorm, rain, snowstorm, thermals, and more!) -Landing/Engine failure Challenges -Racing Challenges -Air Traffic Control -Comprehensive flight dynamics - Pilot a variety of aircraft, from jet airliner, fighter jets, civilian and military helicopters, general aviation, and vintage planes! - Test your landing skills by landing on an aircraft carrier, destroyer ship or an oil rig, or perhaps add some crosswinds, some turbulence and rain to make things more challenging! - Create air-to-ground combat battles and make use of weapons such as cannons, missiles, bombs, rockets and flares and survive against enemies such as tanks, destroyer ships, surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft artilleries and more! - Features fully customizable weather. Control the cloud cover in multiple layers, recreate thunderstorms, snowstorms, rain, customize winds and gusts, visibility and add turbulence! - Visit the locations of Cape Verde and Grand Canyons and take in the views of vast rugged terrain! Locations are recreated on a 1:1 scale with accurate terrain, fully recreated cities, towns and roads from real geodata. Airports are recreated with accuracy and detail to mirror their real life counterparts. - Put your aerobatic stunts on display with the use of customizable aerobatic smoke! - Launch your glider into the sky with a winch and soar through the clouds in an authentic glider simulation! - Try out some landing challenges or create your own! Test your emergency skills with engine failures! - Break the sound barrier in the sky with supersonic jets! - Features Attack Helicopters! - Race against time in racing challenges! - Ability to park your aircraft and walk around! - Features in-depth flight dynamics modelling to bring authenticity to each aircraft! - Features a full day and night cycle! - Features aircraft customization such as changing paint color, selecting weaponry loadouts, external fuel tanks and more! - Fly from a variety of viewing angles, be it 360 degrees around the aircraft, inside the cockpit, or from the passenger seat! - Features ATC (Air Traffic Control) communication and procedures! - Features customizable air traffic! - In-depth controls featuring flaps, gear, spoilers (arm), rudder, reverse thrust, engine start/stop, elevator trim, lights, drag chutes and more! - Features instruments such as: Artificial horizon, altimeter, airspeed, in-flight map, heading, Vertical Speed Indicator, Engine RPM/N1, fuel, G-force gauge, Head-Up Display etc. - Features 3D instrument gauges in cockpits! - Navigate using ILS systems! - Features in-depth Autopilot (Vertical Speed, Altitude change, Autothrottle, Heading) and warning systems for each aircraft! - Features in-depth weapon systems simulation!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Aviateur at 4.7 against Approach Control's 3.2. Aviateur also leads on review sentiment (87% vs 47%) and ratings volume (106 vs 18). Approach Control's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 15.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Approach Control sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Aviateur sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Aviateur holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Aviateur has 106 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 47% of Approach Control's written reviews are positive against 87% of Aviateur's.
Approach Control ships an update every 2 weeks, Aviateur every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Approach Control | Aviateur |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.2 (18 ratings) | 4.7 (106 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 46.6% of reviews | 86.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 106 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 793 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Big Fat Simulations Inc. | Rajatdeep Bakshi |
Customer experience
Approach Control
Aviateur
User reviews
Approach Control
From 18 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Realistic feel
- 👍 Good for passing time
- 👍 Challenging gameplay
- 👍 Addictive
- 👍 Professional interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐛 Game freezes
- 🐛 Does not save progress
- 🐛 Lacks realism in procedures
- 🐛 Limited space for traffic
Aviateur
From 106 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Amazing flight simulator experience
- 🚫 No forced ads
- 🎮 Agile interface with many controls
- ✈️ Large variety of aircraft
- 🗺️ Evocative graphics
Room to improve
- 💰 Most good planes cost money
- 💸 Pay to win aspect
- 🗺️ Limited maps
- 🛬 Landing on terrain can be difficult
- 💥 Unrealistic explosions on impact
Bugs and requests
Approach Control
Reported bugs
60 issues- Game ends without user awareness
- End game screen broken
- Try again/replay button doesn't work
- Game feels like crashing
- Game is frozen
Show 55 moreShow fewer
- Close app and re-launch needed
- Loss of previous gameplay
- Broke sep on aircraft over 30degrees
- Diverting or paths won't intercept
- Scores won't reset
- Glitches
- Crashes
- Scores won't reset
- Crashes a lot
- Doesn't save the score
- Crashes after playing for 10 mins or longer
- Crashes on both iPad and iPhone
- Doesn't save your game
- Lose all your progress
- 4x3 aspect ratio in a 16x9 world
- Crashes regularly after prolonged play
- Behaving funny on paid level
- Basically unplayable on paid level
- Game bugs
- Frequently crashing when selecting a target
- Issues with altitude
- Errors aren't detected
- Better ATC apps available
- Crashes after 8-12 minutes of gameplay
- Lose all my progress
- Game over problem
- Force quit the game after each game
- Blank screens and nothing comes up
- Stopped working following iOS8 upgrade
- Doesn't work on iOS8
- App stopped working following iOS8 upgrade
- Deleted and reinstalled to no avail
- Not working on iOS 8
- Black screen on iPad Air running 8
- App won't even open
- Just a blank screen
- Was a fun game back when it worked
- Separated my planes over 1000' as stated yet it says that I haven't
- Takes a life off me until the game ends
- Deleted as a waste of time
- Completely non-compatible with iOS multitasking
- Once you switch to another app for more than a few minutes, the game would restart
- All scores reset
- Quite annoying
- Game crashes and freezes continually
- Have to start all over again
- Stats aren't recorded
- Start with 203 landings and 'n' number of strikes
- Doesn't keep your game score
- If you pause the game and turn off the phone you loose your game score
- Effort of over an hour being wasted
- No facility for your high scores to be saved and displayed
- If you end a game by getting '3 strikes' and start a new one, you start with the previous games stats
- Good but judgemental
- Some times this man comes up and starts giving you tips and assigns blame
Requested features
33 requests- Random VFR traffic
- Varying runway alignment
- More traffic
- Two runways or more
- Departures
Show 28 moreShow fewer
- Real airports (JFK, KLAX)
- Clear for ILS only in localizer
- Real airlines with callsigns
- New scenarios
- Adjust passage of time (faster/slower)
- Dual airport
- More variety of planes
- Save option
- Ability for time shifting
- More interesting progression
- More features (bigger map, real movements, traffic)
- Choose different airports
- Vectors to direct planes
- Details about planes
- More space to sequence
- Basic aircraft data (light, medium, heavy)
- Space according to wake turbulence
- Divergence rules
- Diverging courses
- Different planes
- Different approach categories
- Dogleg right approaches
- Save game
- Spacing of 3 miles instead of 6 miles
- Pause game and turn off phone
- High scores saved and displayed
- Voice option
- Separation rings
Aviateur
Reported bugs
8 issues- Plane explodes when hitting a tree
- Enemy ground units lock on from too far
- Planes cannot be unlocked (network issue)
- Cannot purchase/restore plane purchases (internet connection required)
- Sun breaks the game (makes everything pink)
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Stalling when looking at the sun
- Weather editing doesn't allow continuation
- Purple vision when pulling Gs
Requested features
28 requests- Add 747 400, 747 8, 777
- Add 747
- Add 777
- Add AH64 Apache
- Add cars that drive on the streets
Show 23 moreShow fewer
- Worldwide boundless scale flying
- More cities
- More free planes (airliners, fighter jets)
- More alarms (pull up alarm)
- Add a new plane (747, 737-100)
- Better camera controls
- Free DC-10, L-1011, 727, 747
- More added aircraft (Airbus A380, Boeing 777, etc.)
- Add fighter jets
- Add WW2 plane and turboprop airliner
- Purchase pack for all planes
- More airports/promotions
- Add C-17 Globemaster III
- More maps (Pacific North West, Canada/Alaska, Japan, Alps)
- Career mode or procedurally generated tasks (cargo flights, passenger flights, rescue missions)
- Multiplayer
- Failure menu (engine fire, etc.)
- Add joystick control option
- Pause game photo mode
- Hide HUD icons
- Add more military planes
- Improve effect
- More free flights
In-app purchases
Approach Control
- Airport 2$1.99
- Airport 3$1.99
- Airport 4$1.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Level 5$1.99
- Level 6$1.99
Aviateur
- Fishbed$0.49
- Lightning II Carrier Variant$0.49
- Blackbird$0.49
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- MH-6E$0.49
- Mi-28N$0.49
- Airbus A380$0.49
- Boeing 787$0.49
- Chinook$0.49
- Concorde$0.49
- Douglas DC-3$0.49
- F-16C$0.49
- Extra 330sc$0.49
- SU-27S$0.49
Questions
Is Approach Control free?
Is Aviateur free?
Which has better reviews, Approach Control or Aviateur?
Do Approach Control or Aviateur have ads?
Which is updated more often, Approach Control or Aviateur?
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