If you are traveling somewhere, it is handy to know which routes will get you there the fastest. This is especially true if you are flying, since airfare has increasingly become more expensive. As such, you’ll want to get your money’s worth for the flights you do take.
The new ESPN FiveThirtyEight blog app, “Which Flight Will Get You There Fastest,” released this past week, is an interactive tool that every traveler should utilize for U.S. airlines and airports. This new app will compare the air routes of several different carriers and make it easier for people to plan their trips and prevent future delays.
It shows users a side-by-side comparison of the air carriers that provide flights to their desired destination, as well as how long each normally takes versus how long it is supposed to take. With this information, passengers can now take delays into consideration when planning a trip through a particular airline or route.
Airports featured in the app include New York’s JFK Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Chicago O’Hare Airport, and other common U.S. airport destinations and transfer points.
Another advantage of the “Which Flight Will Get You There Fastest” app is that travelers can use the data to keep track of which airlines perform best at certain airports, particularly those located in major cities. The information that works to feed the app comes from the Bureau of Transportation Statistic’s monthly information. Although this data is already accessible to all, the new app makes it much easier to get all of the information at once and to use it faster and more effectively.
The “Which Flight Will Get You There Fastest” app was made for three reasons according to its creator: to show the disparity of airline delays, to expose the slowness of some airline carriers, and to reveal that airlines pad their schedules. According to Skift.com, statistics show that out of about six million domestic flights that were tracked by the U.S., 54 percent of them were on time, while some were late and others arrived earlier than anticipated.
In addition, regional airlines tend to operate nearly 50 percent of their U.S. domestic flights for their parent carriers but are likely to have more delays than the main carrier. For example, Envoy Airlines who works with American airlines has an average of 26 minute delays while American Airlines only has about 13 minute delays on average.
