Weather-Good News For Air Travelers

By Bryon Zirker

Delayed flights really suck and are a BIG waste time
for any flier, and a lot of time and money (millions of dollars)
for the airlines. Here is some good news for flier and airlines,
a cool new computerized tool could get many weather-delayed flights
off the ground.

A new developed prototype used in New York starting last year ended
up cutting the sum of delays by 2,300 hours and saved airlines around
$7.5 million in operating costs. This new prototype is called RAPT
(Route Availability Planning Tool) created by researchers at the
Michigan Institute of Technology. It relies on satellite and radar
systems. RAPT will assist air traffic controllers in making better
decisions as to whether or not a targeted flight is advisable in
bad weather conditions.