Summary

  • United Airlines introduces weather maps and customized alerts for customers via text and email during weather delays.
  • AI tools provide real-time information to customer service teams, enhancing communication and transparency.
  • The new system aims to help travelers stay informed during busy travel periods like the Fourth of July weekend.

Have you ever experienced flight delays even though the weather out the window was perfect at either end? United Airlines is on a mission to explain why. Today, the carrier announced that it is introducing weather maps and customized alerts to inform customers of potential delays.

Weather at your fingertips

The Star Alliance carrier is now texting and emailing customers links to local, live radar maps during weather delays. The move builds on the existing system of using a dedicated team of customer service ages to write and send text messages to customers with flight updates on everything from the reasons behind delays to boarding announcements and gate changes.

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Thanks to Artificial intelligence tools, these teams will now have access to more real-time information they can convey to customers. The latest addition, real-time radar maps, can help customers understand how inclement weather in one part of the country can impact a flight hundreds of miles away. Jason Birnbaum, Chief Information Officer at United Airlines, highlighted how the new updates will help travelers stay more informed over the upcoming months:

“With more people traveling this summer than ever, we wanted to give our customers an easier way to stay connected to real-time information about their flight and texting was the simplest solution.

“We know customers appreciate transparency and by combining innovative technology-enabled tools with people power, we can give more people, even more in-the-moment details about their flight.”

United Airlines Real-Time Radar Maps

Photo: United Airlines

The rollout comes ahead of the busy Fourth of July weekend. According to AAA, almost 71 million people are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home over the coming days. United Airlines alone expects to carry over 5 million passengers between June 28th and July 8th.

How does it work?

A dedicated and specialized customer service team has been set up to inform passengers of the latest weather updates with the most detail possible. The group sits alongside the flight operations teams in the network operations center and utilizes generative AI data to track and predict flight data. This information is then consolidated into personalized messages to passengers to provide the complete story of a flight change.

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If adverse or inclement weather could affect flights, the team sends text messages or emails to passengers with additional information about why flight plans are changing. According to the airline, these messages include links to local, live radar maps showing weather details across flight paths. The messages are also intended to be educational by showing how the weather in one part of the country can impact a flight elsewhere. Radar maps within the United Airlines mobile application will supplement them.

United Airlines weather radar in the application

Photo: United Airlines

The maps can be found within the ‘Flight Status’ section of the app and are set to include radar maps in the gate area when a flight has been delayed due to weather.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, weather is the primary cause of over 75% of flight delays. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aviation incidents, reports that weather contributes to 23% of incidents.

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