Flight Times
An airline’s listed flight times are scheduled on the assumption that nothing will go wrong in the air. Generally considered an excellent estimate on how long the plane will be in the air, flight times can be affected by numerous variables.

Eight miles above the Earth, the wind can be fairly strong at times and depending on which direction it is blowing can either help or hinder an airliner. Over the course of a long international flight, strong winds have been known to add, or subtract, up to an hour to an airline’s flight times. With a good strong tail wind the plane can make up time, but if it is flying into a wind, the time will be longer.

The weight of the aircraft also plays a role in the flight times as the heavier the plane the longer it will take. Of course, as the plane burns fuel its weight will diminish allowing it to travel slightly faster. When flight times are listed on tickets it is an estimate, based on ideal conditions, and most airlines will not be held to those figures exactly. If the time is considerably longer, passenger risk missing connecting flights at their destination airport.

Weather is a major factor for flight times as flying through a heavy storm can slow the plane down considerably, and if the pilot decides to circumvent the weather, depending on how far off the scheduled course the plane has to go to get around the hazardous conditions, can add extra time to the flight.

Most airlines give you the capability of following flight travel times through their web site and flight travel times can be viewed in real time. You can track a flight from start to finish and know where the plane is at all times. This ability for real time flight following will help in you knowing if a plane carrying a loved one is going to be early, late or on time.

Tracking the real time airline flights can also be a good indicator of weather patterns, which some meteorologists take into consideration when forecasting the weather.