Image by tom.snaps /flickr.com

I was trying to find some statistics related to airplane travelling and I found this great tool called FlightStats. What is FlightStats? Well, it is a website that provides global information related to airports and flights. There’s a list of the busiest airports and destinations, the most popular destinations and several tools, including an attractive map search tool.

There is an interesting Travel Tool section, in which I explored the Flight Status tool that allows you to search by flight (need airline name or code, the flight number and the departure date), by airport or by route and provides near real-time information and reports of anything that could be affecting a flight. There are other tools worth trying, like Airport Information, which seems to be able to provide delay information, flight status, weather conditions, driving directions (with traffic conditions), car-park options and user ratings. Seems interesting, right? I will try it next time I plan a trip, and I look forward to receiving your comments if you try it too.

If you are just starting to plan how to get to your home exchange destination, you may want to take a look at the Travel Planning tool (currently in the More at FlightStats.com section), it offers the following options: Flight Availability, Country Information, Travel Warnings, Travel Advisories and Consular Information Sheets. Here is what they say about these tools:

“FlightStats has a set of applications that can aid you during your initial stages of planning for travel. Before traveling internationally make sure you view the latest travel advisories and warnings, and research the country you are thinking about traveling to.

Country Information - This application summarizes some of the other country-related applications. In addition, you can see a map of the country with major airports, and learn about disease prevention based off of information from the US Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

Travel Warnings - Get the latest travel warnings published by the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.

Travel Advisories - Current and past news and security alerts for countries around the world.

Consular Information Sheets - The latest information about a country published by the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand.”

Photo by mikecogh /flickr.com

If you are planning to take a flight to your summer home exchange destination then it won’t be bad to read today’s post and prepare to grow some patience, unless of course you actually have wings of your own or you know a scientist with a tele-transportation device in test phase. As we said the last time, patience is a quality that is never over-rated when it comes to travelling, specially in an airport. Why? Well, not always what’s scheduled with weeks of anticipation goes as planned: delays, cancellations, gates that suddenly change, baggage getting lost… We are not saying going though all these is a requirement to get out of an airport, and we certainly hope your next flight leaves and arrives on time, but being prepared for what your next trip to the airport may bring to your life implies taking some patience in your carry on.

Patience not to scream when you can’t get across to the airline staff - this is fundamental, they are probably trying their best to help you and they don’t want to have you stay overnight at the airport or anything, so give them a moment to find a solution, explain your problem nicely as many times as you need and smile for a change.

Patience to go through all the required security checks - they have to check everyone, your safety depends on it too, so give the security staff a chance to do their job correctly, and again, smile.

If you need some encouragement to get you through an airport problem, just remember where you are headed: you are flying off to your home exchange, an experience you will never forget!