WapReview

FlightStats.com has a new mobile flight tracking service that covers international as well as domestic flights. According to their website FlightStats aggregates information from airlines, airports and government agencies around the world to provide the most complete possible flight status information. FlightStats seems to deliver what they claim, giving me estimated flight arrival information for en route flights in the US and Europe including domestic Russian flights. Data seems scarcer for some parts of the world. For flights within China and Kenya, for example, FlightStats was only able to give schedule information.

FlightStats' PC site is great for travelers and aviation buffs. There's a ton of options and information there like historical on-time data by flight and airline, country by country maps showing all the airports in each country, current weather conditions at each airport, airline and airport phone numbers and local maps.

The FlightStats mobile site (www.flightstats.com/go/Mobile), on the other hand, does only one thing which is to tell you when a flight will depart and arrive. To use it you do have to know the airline code and flight number. Enter those two bits of information, optionally change the date which defaults to today and hit submit. Within a few seconds you should have the current status of that flight.

This sort of simplicity is a real virtue for a mobile web site. Having a single purpose simplifies the user interface increasing the likelihood that first time users will be able to get the information they need quickly and with a low frustration level.

AeroPlanner is a flight planning tool for pilots. Registration at aeroplanner.com is required before you can use the mobile site. There are various levels of membership from free to $250/year. Even the free membership includes full  access to the mobile site which has  charts, flight plans, detailed aviation weather reports, aviation calculators and a comprehensive directory of airports with landing fees, hours and fuel prices.

Track commercial flights in North America on your mobile device. FlightView shows departure and arrival and live flight status maps.

AirWX is a free service that gives US pilots instant access to weather and other aviation related data on their mobile phones.

Services include current and forecast weather maps, pilot reports (PIREP), distance between US airports, airport maps and information, Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), conversions between miles/knots and °F/ °C and flight tracking by N number. Source Oh! Mobile Directory

Priority Pass is a service that for an annual fee lets members use over 600 business airport class lounges at over 100 airports.  The Priority Pass mobile site lists participating lounges by airport and provides directions to help you find each lounge.

The mobile edition of the International Aircraft Sales, inc. website lists aircraft for sale and has a worldwide directory of aircraft dealers and insurance and financing agencies.  The well organized for sale database lists hundreds of new and used aircraft ranging from Piper Cubs to 747s for sale or lease at locations around the world. Source: Mobility.mobi

Free searchable community mobile airport directory for pilots and travelers, listing over 40,000 world airports, with airport codes,  latitude, longitude, elevation, live weather and visitor comments.

WhereThere lets travelers share reviews of hotels and restaurants in and around an airport or city. Search by airport code or city, state and country. For each location WhereThere returns the aviation and 3 day weather forecasts and mini reviews of local restaurants, hotels and attractions. There are also links to airline and hotel chain mobile sites and to the mobile versions of Google Local and the Flightstats flight tracking site.

Toll free numbers for major airlines. Thes numbers will only work in the US

Justin over at MOpocket mentioned that online travel giant Orbiz has launched a mobile site and added " I hope WAP Review guy does a review of it". I'm happy to oblige, so here goes.

According to Alexa, Orbitz.com is the number two (in web traffic) online travel agency behind Expedia. In terms of mobile web adoption Orbitz also trails Expedia whose UK operation has had a wml-only Web site for several years. The new Orbitz site is much nicer than Expedia's, however. Orbitz Mobile (mobile.orbitz.com) features a simple, intuitive interface, good for today's harried travelers. The site restricts itself to just four functions.

• Flight Status for 27 airlines from around the world including many that do not have their own mobile site. Notably absent are US low fare carriers Jet Blue and Southwest.
• My Trips, which lets you view itineraries that you have booked on Orbitz.
• Find Hotels, which lists hotels with current availability in 19 major US cities plus Cancun, Mexico.
• Contact Orbitz with click to call links to Orbitz US 800 and international phone numbers.

There are mobile travel sites with more features than Orbitz but few if any that are as easy to use. The interface isn't flashy but it's clean, uncluttered and intuitive which counts for more with me than flashiness. Accesskeys are used liberally speeding navigation.

There is one negative aspect of the user interface that I've criticized before on other sites A dropdown list (html select) is used to choose an airline on the flight status page. With 27 airlines in the alphabetical list that's a lot of clicking the D-pad down arrow on a typical handset - particularly if your airline is United or Virgin Atlantic. I'd prefer a GUI using only accesskey enabled links in a drill down. Meaning, the user first picks a range of letters 'A-E', 'F-H'... and gets a new page with only airlines matching the selected letter range. If you do it right and you don't have more than 100 airlines to choose from it only takes 2 clicks to select any airline. It does mean an extra page load and round trip to the server and back but that still beats all those clicks. The drop down only needs a single page load which can be faster (but with more total bytes transmitted) but requires a minimum of n/2 + 2 clicks where n is is the number of items in the list. On Obitz Mobile that's an average of fifteen clicks for something that could be accomplished with two. It's a trade off and may not matter depending on the phone. With a touch screen device the drop down wins but on a typical phone the links are faster. My latest phone scrolls quickly and the D-pad needs only a light touch so I'm less bothered by long dropdowns than I used to be but I still think it's a poor mobile design.

The Orbitz site loads quickly. The fast load times are partially a function of the small page sizes but web server capacity plays a part too. Over the last year, I've noticed that several of my favorite mobile sites have become so slow as to be almost unusable. I take this as an indication that the mobile web is becoming more popular. Content providers need to monitor response times and make bandwidth upgrades before users notice a slowdown. Nothing drives users away faster than slow page loads and timeouts. Orbitz Mobile is new so the speedy response may not last as more users discover it but for now it's a great choice for flight status on the go.

I'm less impressed with the Hotel Search. It's not really an interactive search, you pick one of the 20 cities and get a list of five hotels in each city that have availability for tonight. To actually book a hotel you have to call Orbitz - at least it's a click to call link. I guess that's in keeping with "keep it simple philosophy" Still allowing you to specify a date range, while still defaulting to tonight and listing more than five hotels in the results would add value without detracting from usability.

Orbitz Mobile's best feature is the fast and easy to use flight status. My Trips is good too if you use Orbitz to book travel. For Hotel Reservations there are better mobile sites. I also think Orbitz needs to add an interactive airline schedule that lets you see all flights from point A to point B. When your flight is delayed or canceled you want to be able to see what your options are on other airlines. Orbitz' competition including Expedia, Cheap Tickets and Sabre's "Virtually There" all have this feature on their mobile sites.

Flight Status, Flight Schedules, Hotel Finder. If you create an Expedia account with a desktop browser you can view your itineraries.

The Federal Aviation Agency's official mobile site is pretty barebones but does provide information on airport closures and delays for all airports and carriers in one place.

Flight schedules, flight status and weather forecasts

Live arrival and departure information, weather forecasts and a guide to airport services, shops and restaurants including a unique "What's within 5 minutes of ny gate" interactive feature for the Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport.

Scheludes,flight status, directory of shops and services and transportation information including bus and train schedules for the Krakow airport.  Phone numbers in listings are not click to call. Source Mobility.mobi