What Offline Means for Airport Explorer
Airport Explorer is a Progressive Web App. It is a website built to behave more like a native app when installed on your device. Like any website, it needs a connection the first time it loads. What makes a Progressive Web App different is that it caches the pages and files you visit on your device. That cached version is what loads when your connection is gone. You get access to what you have already opened while connected. Games you have visited will run. Pages you have not yet opened will not load.
How to Add Airport Explorer to Your Home Screen
Adding the app to your home screen is the first step. On iPhone or iPad, open Airport Explorer in Safari, tap the Share button, scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen, then confirm. On Android in Chrome, tap the three-dot menu and tap Add to Home Screen or Install App. On Desktop Chrome or Edge, look for the install icon in the address bar. Most modern browsers on Android and desktop support installation via their menu.
Setup Must Happen While You Are Online
Installing the app icon is not enough on its own. The offline cache is built from the pages you actually visit while connected. The setup takes about five minutes and is best done at home or in a hotel before you travel. Open Airport Explorer, go to the games you plan to play, and let each one fully load before moving on. Each page you visit gets stored in the device cache and becomes available when your connection is gone.
What Works When You Are Offline
Games you have fully loaded while connected will continue to run offline. The game files, graphics, and logic are all stored locally and run entirely within the app without needing a server. Pages and articles you have previously visited will also load from cache. If you spend five minutes loading the games and a few articles beforehand, the offline experience covers everything you are likely to want during a flight.
What Does Not Work Without a Connection
Any game or page you have not visited before going offline will not load. The blog's dynamic posts require a live connection. Static articles you have opened before will display from cache. Any feature that depends on live data, such as new content, catalog updates, or score submission, requires a connection. A quick session online before travel rebuilds the cache if some cached content has been cleared.
Errors You Are Likely to See
The most common error when opening an uncached game without a connection is a blank screen or a browser message along the lines of this site cannot be reached. On iOS, Safari's cache can be cleared between sessions if the device ran low on storage. On older devices, large game files may not have fully cached if you navigated away before the page finished loading. Waiting for the game to fully appear before moving to the next one avoids this.
When Your Connection Returns
When your connection comes back, Airport Explorer resumes normal function without any action on your part. Refreshing the page or reopening the app loads the latest version of any content. There is nothing to sync, configure, or manually update. New content published since your last session is fetched automatically when you are back online. You do not need to reinstall the app or clear anything to get updates.