I mentioned this FAA site in this week’s article. Have you ever been curious about how old (or new) the plane you’re flying on is? Well, this website allows users to enter in the plane’s tail number and out pops all kinds of crazy information, like: serial number, registration, manufacturer, certificate issue date, model, status, type of aircraft, type of engine, registered owner, address and most importantly, the year it was manufactured. The whole process takes about five seconds. If you want to give this a whirl, the number you’re looking for is located at the back of the plane just below the tail; it’s very easy to spot and begins with the letter ‘N’.
Another government website, this one breaks down airport, airline and specific flight numbers on-time statistics. All you have to do is log on to the BTS.gov website and choose the type of search you want to perform. Currently, the statistics are updated to July 2007. I just did a search of both LAX and JFK airports (the two domestic airports I frequent most) from June 1 to July 1. Not surprisingly, LAX fared much better. Between that time period, LAX had 20,135 flights take off, compared to JFK’s 10,834. At LAX, the average departure delay was just 10 minutes; JFK’s was 25 minutes. At LAX, average taxi time took 15 minutes, as opposed to JFK’s 45 minutes. LAX had 240 flights cancelled (1.19%) while JFK had 479 (4.42%). The only category where JFK came out on top was number of diverted flights and just by a mere 0.02%. LAX had 57 diverted flights while JFK had 28. Seeing these numbers makes perfect sense to me as it reflects my personal problems with JFK. Using the search for specific flight numbers to see what the on-time statistics are, is always a good idea before booking your ticket.
