A United Airlines plane seen at the gate at Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) on October 5, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Slim | AFP | Getty Images
Don't think that bad weather is the reason for your united airlines Has your flight been delayed? The airline will text you real-time radar maps to prove it.
Even when there is sunshine and light, a thunderstorm hundreds of miles away can disrupt your flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration can issue ground stop orders, which prevent traffic from departing for a particular airport so that those facilities do not become overloaded.
Bad weather can also force flights not only to depart late but also to take longer routes to avoid it, delaying the arrival of planes. Thunderstorms can come on suddenly and are harder to predict than larger systems like winter storms and hurricanes. Sometimes delays can pile up, leaving planes and crews out of position.
United said Wednesday it is using generative artificial intelligence to send travelers links to live radar maps, provided by flight tracking platform FlightAware, as well as other causes of flight disruption, such as mechanical issues or airport congestion.
Its technology will be put to the test around the July 4 holiday period, during which United expects to set a record with 5 million people flying between June 28 and July 8, up 7% from last year.
In the first half of the year, nearly 942,000 U.S. airline flights, or 21.4%, arrived late, slightly better than the 22.3% of flights that arrived late in the same period a year earlier, according to FlightAware.
