This website has been around for a while. Almost too long perhaps, considering it still lists a number of airlines that aren’t even in operation anymore ... ahem, Aloha, America West, TWA. However, it’s still very useful especially for people who like to do their homework and check up on airports, airlines, or even specific flights for on-time departures, arrivals, airborne time, cancellations and even diversions.
Each month, all of this data is reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). The data covers nonstop scheduled-service flights between points within the United States (including territories) since January 1995. I find the most useful information to be the statistics on recent flights’ average departure delays, average taxi-out time and average scheduled departures. Just sort by airport, airline, month, day and year.
Instead of always featuring a travel website, I sometimes write about a cool and useful travel product.
This one is right at the top of that list. In a recent story, I mentioned that I’d discovered bringing a surge protector
with me overseas makes my life on the road so much easier. Well, it just got even easier with Belkin’s new mini surge protector.
It weighs just under seven ounces and is about five inches long. Not only is this smaller than the ones you normally find in stores,
but it doesn’t come with a clumsy cord. The plug is attached to a three-outlet surge protector and
a built-in, two-port USB charger. Score! So instead of combing your hotel room walls for multiple outlets and bringing a mess of
electrical adapters, all you need is the mini surge protector and one adapter and you’ll be able to power up and/or charge your laptop,
camera, cell phone, iPod … all at one time. In the event that the device fails during a surge and you do end up killing some expensive
equipment, Belkin provides a $75,000 equipment warranty. It’s available for $24.99 at Belkin.com or for $19.99 at
Amazon.com.
