By Ian Tallett, Director of Business Partnerships, Tomorrow.io
Has your flight ever been delayed as a big storm rolls in or while the de-icers go about their work? It might just mean an irritating extra hour sitting on the tarmac or it could involve waiting around for days until the danger from a hurricane has passed.
Weather-related airport delays lead to stress and frustration and rack-up extra costs. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a flight delay of just one hour can cost airlines up to $4,500.
A lot of these weather-related travel delays can be dealt with more efficiently and cost-effectively if key people at the airport know exactly what weather’s in store, in a timely and highly localized way.
Thankfully, there is now a way to better anticipate weather conditions by melding artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) in a handy app.
At Tomorrow.io, a Boston-based start-up, we use non-traditional data points, such as connected cars, cell towers and IoT devices, as virtual weather sensors. We combine this big data with information from more conventional radar, satellite and weather station sources to feed our exclusive, AI-driven models. These can analyze the data in minutes instead of hours and within hundreds of meters of a customer facility, rather than several kilometers as is currently the norm.
Tomorrow.io’s MicroWeather solution represents a massive advance in weather forecasting. Traditional methods rely almost exclusively on old-fashioned weather stations for their data and tend to offer fairly general forecasts, for example of rainfall or snow in a state or region. Because these standard forecasts are not very specific, many airlines understandably overcompensate for potential bad weather events by prematurely closing ramps, cancelling flights and over staffing.
MicroWeather thus improves safety, efficiency and passenger satisfaction.
Tomorrow.io’s weather engine offers a range of services, from multi-location hourly forecasts, to minute-by-minute runway-level predictions. Our customizable interface lets users select specific weather features, such as snowfall or wind speeds, and to talk to certified meteorologists via our live chat support option.
It will complement the datasource of the Amadeus’ portfolio of solutions for Airports by further enhancing the decision making process and the deployment of resources thanks to the integration of more specific and reliable weather information.
We’re excited to be joining Amadeus Explore. It will help us to grow faster and to benefit from access to a wider network of potential customers and partners, as well as support from Amadeus experts.
