‘Crescent Trips’ New In-Flight Prayer App Lets Muslims Calculate Prayer Times And Location

Crescent Trips is a new in-flight app developed by Crescentrating that lets traveling Muslims calculate prayer times and the proper location of Mecca based on their location. The free app is currently only available for iOS devices but the company says an Android version will be ready in a few months.

Crescent Trips was designed using the Air Travel Prayer Times calculator, an Internet-only service offered by the tech firm from Singapore. Crescentrating aims to provide “Halal-friendly travel,” with information on Halal restaurants, mosques and other topics Muslim tourists would be interested in.

The app will let users calculate location and time along a flight path that will be available when the device is not connected to the Internet. Crescent Trips provides travel duas, or prayers, that include the Arabic text, audio and English translations. Users can also set reminders for prayer times and look for Halal food options at an airport.

Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of Crescentrating, said in a statement, “There has been a lot feedback on the calculator and we have integrated those features on our mobile app. The mobile app will make it easier for Muslim travelers to make use of the calculator.”

Speaking to Agence-France Presse, the company’s executives discuss the potential market for such an app. According to the news agency, the Muslim tourist industry is booming. Citing a study by Crescentrating and DinarStandard, Muslim tourism spending was at $126 billion per year in 2011 and could increase to $192 billion per year by 2020.

Dany Bolduc, Crescentrating’s COO, said to AFP, “The Muslim traveler is probably the largest untapped market in the travel industry today.”