Fboweb.com has announced implementation of an online flight tracking system that integrates with Google Earth. This allows you to see in near real time, flight activity at major airports such as Atlanta (ATL), LAX, New York (JFK), San Francisco (SFO) and Chicago O'Hare (ORD).
FBOWeb and Flightaware.com are both Great Tools to Have.This tool, along with a similar application from
flightaware.com, allow tracking of individual flights as well as general traffic. I've found a number of business applications that are very helpful.
I've used
flightaware and
Fboweb.com to track flights after I have gotten home from a particularly hairy business flight. It's interesting to see exactly what diversions the pilot actually made before that "one wire" landing at ATL.
Parcel Carrier Operations
More importantly, last February on the eve of Valentines Day, the US mid-west was hit by a major snow storm that hampered flight operations throughout the region. Parcel carriers such as UPS, DHL and FedEx were hit hard on the evening prior to the delivery of many thousands of flower shipments for Valentines Day. The interrupted operations put this fragile cargo, along with chocolates and other sensitive shipments at risk. Operations were disrupted for a whole week for all three carriers. If flight operations are impacted you can also be sure that truck traffic is too as shipments are diverted to surface modes and trucks back up at the hubs waiting on direct induction to the air networks.
Tools like Fboweb and flightaware allow a user to immediately see traffic flows into airports like the major parcel hubs at Memphis, Louisville and Wilmington, Ohio. Over a 24 hour period you can track airport activity and get a near real-time sense of the impact of a storm like this on both your own operations as well as that of competitors. (That could be significant when one parcel carrier owns and controls flight operations at the airport (DHL) and others only have priority take off privileges.)
When companies like
1-800-Flowers and
FTD make 80 percent of their revenues on just two holidays (Valentine's Day and Mother's Day), it is imperative to be able to see and understand weather impact on parcel carrier networks.
Flightaware.com - A Paparazzi Favorite!The press has known about the flightaware.com tool for some time. When the
University of Alabama went hunting for a new football coach, both fans and newsies alike often tracked the whereabouts of influential trustee, Paul Bryant, Jr.'s Gulfstream I, N323P. When his airplane took off and landed in Augusta Ga., then took off and simply circled for 45 minutes, then landed and flew back to Tuscaloosa...virtually everybody knew that an interview with University of South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier had just taken place. When Nick Saban was eventually hired, the fans and the airplane paparazzi knew the tail number of the jet that was involved. This can be a real
"Where's Waldo?" exercise. There were rabid Crimson Tide fans who spent days "interpreting" the coaching search by tracking PBJ's Gulfstream as well as university aircraft used by UA Athletic Director, Mal Moore.
(Just for fun...go to flightaware.com and use Bryant's jet registration number, N323P and you'll be able to see the last several flights that airplane has made. When used for a coaching search, a circus can and did erupt.)
Wall Street: Stuff that makes ya go "Hmm....?"Wall Street brokers have been known to track the jet whereabouts of Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and other business leaders. For instance, what does it mean when the private aircraft of two senior business executives from rival firms happen to land within 10 minutes of each other in Peoria, then five minutes later another jet lands with a major venture capitalist aboard? Is a deal in progress or is it just an amazing coincidence? "
Inquiring minds want to know!" Notice however, that I said "Peoria" and not "San Jose", where such occurrences are normal. Stocks can rise and fall on this stuff.
Whether tracking Aunt Minnie's flight from Topeka or measuring traffic flows for business operations, these tools are fun to have.
Google Earth is a must. It's highly educational for kids as well as adults.
LimitationsThe primary limiter to these tools is that they only work on air traffic in the US. You can see international flights, but they must either start or end in the US. For security reasons, there is a delay of a certain number of minutes to display of flight information as well. However for most recreational and commercial purposes, these tools are about as "real-time" as needed.
Users can access the Fboweb interface for Google Earth at:
http://www.fboweb.com/3d.
Eric
Having been a proper dot.communist in the early 2000's, I recognized
scooters, Low fat, high energy snackage and foozball as trinkets to the
fact that most of these employees are extremely young, extremely smart,
and easily bored...but nevertheless probably work 70+ hours a week.
Hell, why not? Google is worth billions of dollars and I'm fairly sure
some stock options are involved.
This is possibly the coolest thing I have seen lately. Called the 
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