FlightStats provides inclusive data

Your next flight purchase over the Internet could include a quick checkup on whether the airline is likely to get you to your destination on time.

Conducive Technology Corp., which this year introduced a comprehensive array of passenger airline statistics called FlightStats, now has new tools for consumers that include precise real-time maps of where most commercial flights are at any given moment and on-time performance records by carriers and individual flights.

The Portland-based company also has developed software to enable travel search engines to display that information without requiring a separate trip to the FlightStats site.

Already, FlightStats has the ability to send an e-mail four hours before a flight saying whether it is expected to depart on time.

Still to come, said Jeff Kennedy, Conducive chief executive officer, are the Internet travel-site clients to put the company’s numbers to work – and bring in revenue.

A little over a decade after helping American Airlines establish one of the first Internet booking sites, Kennedy is banking that the offerings of his company will appeal to travelers seeking data that are more comprehensive, quickly available and easy to use than federal flight statistics.

Robert Mann, president of the airline consulting firm R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, N.Y., said FlightStats is just beginning to make a name for itself, but consumers appear to have an appetite for better flight information.

“This is a data-driven industry and increasingly third parties are latching on to that,” Mann said.

Five months ago, when Conducive offered to provide data free of charge to the National Business Travel Association, the Alexandria, Va.-based organization asked some of its corporate members to look over what FlightStats had to offer.

“They told us this was great information,” said Caleb Tiller, an association spokesman.

Conducive unveiled FlightStats at the travel association’s annual convention in August, and since then has been refining new offerings and securing customers. Kennedy said the company is nearly ready to announce contracts with a large West Coast airport and a nationally known Internet search engine.

The company recently announced that MobiMate Ltd. would rely on FlightStats for flight-status data on upcoming versions of its widely used business travel software for cellular phones and handheld devices.

Curiously, the airline industry’s tailspin has helped fuel interest in FlightStats. Since Northwest Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection, news reporters have turned to FlightStats for rapidly available data on how the filing may have affected the airline’s performance.

Meara McLaughlin, who handles business development and marketing for Conducive, said the company is marketing its data to airlines as a means of appealing to consumers who value on-time service over price.

Whether airlines are willing to pay for the information is unclear, particularly if it shows the airlines in a different light than federal data do.

For example, the most recent federal statistics, for August, rank Southwest Airlines ninth in on-time arrivals, at 78.4 percent.

For the same month, FlightStats gave Southwest credit for arriving on time on 82 percent of its flights. But by including more carriers, FlightStats dropped Southwest to a ranking of 13th.

Marilee McInnis, a spokeswoman for Southwest, said it appears that much of what FlightStats offers is already publicly available.

“We don’t necessarily have any problem with their information as long as the sources are accurate,” she said.