1. History
and backgroung:
FlightView Inc., a company founded in
1981, was the first one to “brought real-time flight tracking to the Web making
current flight information available to the general public on one of the first
commercial travel sites” in 1996. Since then, this technology has been
developed a lot as almost every airlines website provide flight tracking
service, as well as the Google search (when entering the number of the flight
you get the arrival time and potential delays) and now even applications for
phones, tablets and phablets are dedicated to it.
The concept is simple: being able to
follow the real-time journey of the aircraft. The main objective for the public
is to know whether the plane has been delayed or not and if it has landed
safely and at what time. Today there is a wide range of flight tracking
services, from websites to mobile applications (iOS and Android) and from the
most basic to complex ones dedicated to professionals. FlightAware (free),
FlightRadar24 (2.99$), GateGuru (free), FlightTrack5 (4.99$), FlightBoard (3.99$),
FlightView (free), TripTracker (free) are only a few examples of the available
applications, and prices range from gratuity to 9.99$.
photo credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Computer_Networks_g351-Smart_Phone_With_Applications_p113509.html
2. Utility
The number of apps created shows us the
potential that flight tracking represents for customers. Searching by flight
number, airport code or route, flight trackers know if their flight has been
delayed and what is the new landing time. It is especially useful when picking
up someone at the airport. Here are some of the features also covered: being able
to see where the plane is along its itinerary (just like on the screens in the
aircraft itself when travelers can see how far they have gone already);
information about delays and cancellations, check in desk number, hotel and car
rental reservations, estimated security waiting time, following luggage into
the plane and outside to the baggage claim zone; getting the routes and
itineraries to the airport; locating the best restaurants inside and outside
the terminal, etc. Some of these information are crowdsourced.
It can increase travelers’ satisfaction by
avoiding bad surprises at the airport. Families and friends are also targeted
as real time positioning reassures them, especially after the crashes of 2014. Airports
also can benefit from this system by uploading information and content about
them on the different applications. Hence, customer satisfaction can be
enhanced by these services.
This video of FlightAware, one of the
leading application on the market shows how a flight tracking application works:
Source: FlightAware.com - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deJ2N7Ajk70
3. Limits
Such systems have actually been existed
for a while since airports and air traffic control use them to follow the
itineraries of the different planes and locate them if they report any
problems. Nevertheless, the system is not unerring since some aircrafts seem to
vanish from the screens, just like the flight MH370 did a few months ago. These
events have put the flight tracking systems on the stage since it seems
unbelievable to lose an aircraft when we can see them at their exact position a
few minutes before.
Moreover,
some might argue that such widely opened information about the exact position
of the different planes can put them in danger regarding possible terrorist
attacks. To this argument, the site flightaware.com replies: “No, this
information is public knowledge and not a security risk. The assertion that
knowing aircraft whereabouts, routing, or airport activity promotes terrorism
or is a security risk is specious reasoning and baseless paranoia akin to
suggesting that train or subway routes/schedules should not be published or
perhaps that airport locations should be kept a secret.”
We decided to discuss this topic since we
are ourselves users of the service and because it highlights the remaining
failures that need to be addressed to make the plane an even safer way to
travel.
Sources:
http://corporate.flightview.com/about-us
Florence Autier & Marie Lallement
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