Beyond the occasional parent who takes pride in arriving a full four hours ahead of schedule—and committed duty-free shoppers—few travellers welcome the prospect of idling away hours before a flight.
The aversion runs deep enough that “airport theory”—the practice of arriving as late as possible on the assumption that airlines overestimate boarding times—became a major trend last year.
It’s not an approach we would endorse; experts previously warned Euronews Travel that it is a genuinely poor idea. Even so, the desire to minimise time spent at the airport is easy to understand.
Now the flight-tracking app Flighty hopes to tackle the issue with the launch of a new personalised “when to leave” feature.
“Millions of travellers already trust Flighty to tell them what’s happening with their flight,” said Ryan Jones, Flighty’s founder and CEO. “Now we’re helping beyond the flight itself, offering a personalised plan from door to departure that brings travel time and airport routine together in one simple timeline.”
How it works
After entering their flight details, users can add their departure location so that Flighty can estimate how long the drive to the airport will take.
The app bases its drive-time estimates on Apple Maps, factoring in variables such as traffic and public holidays that could affect the journey. Those relying on public transport can simply input their expected travel time manually.
While Flighty provides default suggestions for how early to arrive, users can fine-tune these across nine activities, including parking, rental-car returns, security, check-in, passport control and lounge time.
Drawing on all of this information, Flighty sends an initial alert urging users to prepare to leave, followed by a “time to leave” notification 20 minutes later. Further notifications flag any worsening traffic conditions.
