We have been highlighting ways Wolfram|Alpha can be a part of your daily life, and we think you will find it a great addition to your other travel resources. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, Wolfram|Alpha can become a part of your planning by providing essential data.
Let’s say you live in San Francisco, California and want to fly to Miami, Florida. Type “San Francisco airports” into Wolfram|Alpha, and your results conveniently include the airport code “SFO” for the San Francisco International Airport. You can use Wolfram|Alpha to instantly access all codes for all U.S. airports, even those as obscure as 11II. Results also list elevation of the airport, number of runways, local time, and other nearby airports in case you want to search for better alternatives for your departure and arrival cities.
While the airport search also returns basic weather information, Wolfram|Alpha offers weather data in richer detail for planning your travel activities. Add the date of your trip—let’s say August 14—to get last year’s weather on that day plus years of historical data for the same day.
After selecting airports you can check your estimated travel time and distance. Let’s choose to fly from San Francisco International Airport to Miami International Airport. Enter “SFO to MIA” into Wolfram|Alpha and it will tell you that a direct flight is 2,585 miles. Enter “SFO to MIA time” and it will tell you that the flight time is approximately 4.7 hours.
Uncertain which carrier will deliver you to your destination most efficiently? Wolfram|Alpha can show you a visual comparison of on-time flights for different airlines. For instance, if you are having trouble deciding between Northwest Airlines, American Airlines, and JetBlue Airways, a comparison of this data could be the determining factor. Enter “Northwest Airlines American Airlines JetBlue on time” and Wolfram|Alpha will display this a chart comparing the history of each airline’s on-time arrivals, from which you can see that Northwest has recently had more on-time flights than the other two.
Our flight data is currently only for U.S. domestic flights; however, please note that Wolfram|Alpha is a long-term project and we are committed to adding worldwide flight information as soon as possible. So when you’re planning your next trip, let Wolfram|Alpha give you city, flight, and weather data.
