Whether you’re the type to arrive hours before a flight or an edge lord who lives to cut it close, knowing when to leave to make the plane and make the most of your precious time used to be a personal equation.
No more.
“When to Leave,” a new feature from the award-winning Flighty travel app, promises to tell passengers exactly when to leave for the airport, weighing variables such as traffic and airport wait times.
Per a recent report, despite airlines’ and airports’ express recommendation to arrive two hours before a domestic flight, only 10% stick to that guideline.
Instead, the average traveler arrives only an hour before departure, with baby boomers likely to get there earliest.
Similarly, the average person arrives for an international flight 75 minutes before it leaves — less than half the recommended time.
However, Flighty streamlines timelines to ensure no time is wasted and no connection is missed.
Users begin by adding flight details and their departure location.
The app uses Apple Maps to calculate drive times, checks the data, and sends an initial “Leave Soon” alert 20 minutes before the final “Time to Leave” alert.
If traffic intensifies, Flighty will send an updated notification.
The app also factors in data like public holidays that could equate to heavier traffic and longer security lines.
Travelers can calculate their Airport Time as a single block or manually customize up to nine distinct activities, including parking, check-in, and security.
“Millions of travelers already trust Flighty to tell them what’s happening with their flight,” said Ryan Jones, Flighty’s founder and CEO, in a statement.
“Now we’re helping beyond the flight with a personalized plan from door to departure, bridging travel time and airport routine in one simple timeline.”
While When to Leave is aimed at drivers, users getting to the airport by other means can enter the necessary travel time based on transportation.
In accordance with most airline and airport recommendations, When to Leave suggests a default starting point of two hours for U.S. domestic flights.
If a user has flown from a particular airport before, the app suggests their usual timing.
This new technology comes as more travelers are deliberately cutting it close at the airport in a viral gamble known as the “airport theory.”
The social media trend encourages passengers to arrive just minutes before clearing security, often just 15 minutes before boarding, to avoid long waits and extra time in the airport terminal.
Despite the obvious possibility of missing a flight, interest in the trend has surged.
Searches for “airport theory” have jumped more than 11,000% over the past year, according to international travel eSIM provider Holafly.
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