More airport alerts sent to e-mail, cellphones, PDAs
— -- Need some last-minute travel information? A growing number of airports are sending messages and alerts to e-mail, BlackBerry and cellphone users.
Travelers need to sign up, but the service transmits information about flights, parking, ground traffic or security waiting times electronically for free. It's also available at many airports' websites.
Boston Logan airport's Flight Alert service made its debut last week. Seattle-Tacoma airport began providing flight information to cellphone users last month. San Diego airport says it is considering a similar service, and Oregon's Portland airport may begin looking into it, says Port of Portland spokeswoman Karen Fisher.
Seattle-Tacoma airport gets its flight information directly from airlines, while Logan uses airline and Federal Aviation Administration data, Logan spokesman Matthew Brelis says. Subscribers to Logan's service receive messages for cancellations, or delays or diversions greater than 30 minutes.
Frequent business traveler David Mazzotta, of Salt Lake City, regularly uses Seattle-Tacoma airport's alert service and says all airports should have it.
"I think it's great, and it helps me immensely," says the vice president of a marketing and advertising consulting company. "It allows me to stay longer with a client when a flight is delayed."
Many business travelers already rely on airline e-mail messages to stay abreast of flight changes.
American Airlines' electronic message service, for example, "has made travel much easier," says software salesman Ted Mitchell of Dallas. Among other things, he uses the service to confirm departure and arrival times and gate and baggage-claim information.
But frequent flier Vincent Greenlee of Chicago says airline alert services can fail when flights are pushed back by weather delays. "The updates are not sent accordingly," says Greenlee, who works in the information technology industry.
Airlines say their own e-mail alert services are the best for travelers, because no one knows their operations better than they do. An airline's alert provides information about all the carrier's flights, while airport alerts only track flights to and from the airport.
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