This popular flight tracking app now predicts plane delays, thanks to AI

Whether you fly often for work or once every few years for vacation, you know that delayed or canceled flights can quickly ruin your plans. Thanks to a recent artificial intelligence-powered update to the Flighty app, however, you might soon get a heads up about a delay before it even happens — along with a reason why. 

ZDNET considers Flighty, which is exclusively available for iOS, a must-have app for air travel, primarily because of its top-notch alerts, notifications, and tracking information. Version 4.0 of the flight tracker gives air travelers several new features, including delay predictions, information on what caused them, and airport delay trends.

How does Flighty predict a delay? By monitoring the two biggest causes of delays: aircraft issues and airspace issues.

Also: 12 iPhone apps I can’t live without (and why you need them, too)

First, it monitors a specific plane’s activity for up to 25 hours before a flight. The largest cause of delays, Flighty explains, is the incoming aircraft arriving late. If a plane is late to a stop earlier in the day before it gets to yours, it can cause a ripple effect that lasts throughout the day. AI machine learning built into Flighty can spot the delays that might impact your flight as early as six hours ahead and let you know if they will affect you.

The second biggest cause of delays is Air Traffic Control (ATC) mandates like ground stops, storm and congestion delays, and even ATC staffing. Flighty says it taps into the same FAA data used by pilots and can send out notifications even before the pilots themselves are aware of delays. The app also monitors airport takeoff and landing data and uses AI to spot trends that might lead to delays.

Also: The best travel VPNs

The real benefit here is that you might get a notification about a delay before the airline announces it or a heads up that one is likely coming, giving you a chance to make other arrangements before everyone else scrambles to do the same — which also means less time spent waiting at the airport. 

Flighty is available for iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac devices. The new features are offered only to premium subscribers who pay $4 a week, $48 a year, or $249 for a lifetime subscription. The free version of the app offers basic flight tracking. 

You can try out Flighty Pro free on one flight to test the new features.