Flightaware – Know your flight status before hand.
Those who are looking for this information go to a new website, known as flight aware.com (www.flightaware.com, or for those using Minitel, 4372b) “Flightaware" software is simply a set of computer programs which constantly checks with the airlines and insures that they have the up to the minute information which is required to notify passengers at the earliest possible moment. One can compare Flightaware to a rocket launch at the Kennedy Space Center, where flight aware software is being used to predict the launching of manned and unmanned rockets from the center. In the past, it was enough to know when the plane was leaving to predict when the plane was going to land. This is less true today, as many times planes can be diverted or delayed once in the air. Air aware flight tracking is the other component, which uses FAA data to track where the plane is along its planned itinerary. If there is a diversion because of a storm over Chicago, for example, the air aware flight tracking software notifies the website and shows that the itinerary has been diverted. This is a great service for those who check to see if a plane departed on time, but was delayed en route due to unforeseen factors.
www.Flightaware.com is a great website for those who would like to feel completely secure about the arrival of their flight. This service will become increasingly common, as dedicated sites will give way to incorporation in the corporate and flight sites that now don’t have the information. In the future, rather than look at www.flightaware.com, it is possible that the software will automatically engage at the time that the passenger books his or her ticket, or that next-of-kin or those picking the person up at the destination airport have a heads-up about the expected arrival. There are so many tools available today, including cellular phone, blackberry and PDA, which can receive this information in a timely way and insure that the traveler or his associates are not inconvenienced.