If you're heading to the airport any time soon, you should probably bring along a good book and be prepared for a long wait, especially during the busy holiday season.

So is there a way to speed things up? 4 On Your Side discovered: yes.

Dr. John Sullivan hops on a plane a half dozen times every month for work. He has no spare time to hang out in an airport. So what's his solution?

"I try to minimize how many flights I'm on and do direct flight. Cost is always a factor," he admitted. "But I also want to get from A to B as quickly as possible," he told us.

Sullivan shared some tricks to avoid travel delays.

One: leave at the crack of dawn.

Two: make sure there are multiple flights going his way.

"This is the flight I'm going to take. How many flights are going to the same destination are after this flight, so if there's a possibility if I get bumped, I can jump on a different flight?" he explained.

He also uses a travel alert service...which sends a message to his PDA if his flight is late.

Travel expert 'Johnny Jet' di Scala says it's a Godsend during these bumpy travel times.

"Last week I was in Florida at the gate, and my flight was delayed and I would show the gate agent, 'Look this flight is delayed another 30 minutes.' I was getting the information before they were," he told us.

A growing number of travel alert services have recently popped up. Some Web sites monitor weather or give you a bird's eye view of your plane in the air, telling you how far away it is from your terminal.

Others send a travel delay message to your PDA or cellphone.

Check for service fees, but remember, di Scala says the accuracy is about the same as the airlines, because it's all coming from the same place.

"Flight delay information is all up to the flight controller. They put in the information and the moment they put it in, it's accurate," di Scala explained.

Are those with monthly fees worth it if the airline info is usually the same?

Sullivan thinks getting an alert when you're on the road is a distinct advantage because the earlier you know, the better your chances of rebooking.

"The more time you have to prepare if your flight being delayed or canceled, the better, because you're going to be competing with other passengers for those limited seats," Dr. Sullivan said.

Fees for many of the services are less than $5 a month.